Voices from a Lost Time
by Alveric
Summary: With unknown enemies at their door and no way to find them, voices from the forgotten and rediscovered past open up new paths for SG-1 to tread, while Sam and Cameron learn to accept all they are to each other. Sequel to 'Under the Silent Stars'. Cam/Sam
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**Voices from a Lost Time – Chapter 1**

Atlantis, December 26th, 2007

"Merry Christmas, Atlantis!" Cam cried after he stepped through the Stargate from the Midway Station, dropped his duffel at his feet and stretched out his arms. Sam closed her eyes and sighed, resting her forehead in her hands. Cam ignored that and instead embraced her warmly. She smiled and returned it, seeing him again felt so good. "Hey there, Sam. We miss you. I miss you." he whispered against her ear without releasing her.

"I miss you all too. It's good to see you, Cameron." She pulled away and held her closed fist over his head, bringing it down with a solid thump. "And that's for only giving me two days warning you were coming. At _Christmas_! What were you thinking?" John chuckled from behind her while Rodney gave a miffed little mutter. Cam rubbed the top of his head with one eye closed in mock-pain.

"I was thinking I was gonna surprise you for your birthday in a few days." he replied with a pout. Her eyes widened in alarm for a second as she realised she'd kind of forgotten it was her birthday soon. "Hey, Sheppard, Dr. McKay, good to see you guys again." Both men nodded at him, Sheppard with a lop-sided grin and McKay with a slight smirk. "Hope all you crazy Canucks and other Brits and Commonwealth types are having a pleasant Boxing Day." Cam pointed at Sergeant Campbell on the balcony and McKay, who seemed surprised, before he moved up towards Teyla and Jennifer Keller standing next to John and extended his hand. "Hi, I'm Cam Mitchell, I don't think I met you ladies the last time I was here." Sam smiled slightly before making introductions. Rodney plucked at his lip in sudden thought.

"Cam, this is Teyla Emmagan, she's a leader among the Athosians and a member of Colonel Sheppard's AR-1 team, and this is Dr. Jennifer Keller, Atlantis' Chief Medical Officer." She indicated each woman in turn and Cam shook their hands with a smile. "You'll get to meet Ronon Dex in a while, he's off-world right now with Major Lorne's team."

"I look forward to it. He's the guy with the dreads you mentioned?" he asked and she nodded in reply. "Man, if he's half as good as you describe then I'd pay to watch him and the T-man sparring.

"Hey, I'll have you know I can keep up with him when we spar." John said with a faintly proud glimmer in his eyes as he crossed his arms.

"John..." Teyla raised an eyebrow as she looked at her team leader askance and he glowered at her.

"Okay, he may be going a little easy on me, but it's only a little!" Sheppard's voice clearly showing his indignation. Sam and Cam both chuckled. "What?" He glowered at them theatrically.

"Yes, yes, yes," Rodney suddenly interjected, surprising them with how quiet he'd been until then, "I'm sure your relative rankings at the mighty skill of waving sticks about until you poke an eye out is very important to you people, but I think you're all missing something of far greater importance here." They all turned to look at him with varying degrees of irritation.

"And what's that, Rodney?" asked Sheppard with a sidelong glance of frustration at Teyla. She returned it with a look of condescending patience for both of them. Rodney pointed at Cam.

"He just said," he flicked his finger to point at Sam, "that it was her birthday in a few days." Sam groaned as Cam grinned. The others' features lit up in surprise and delight.

"That's right! And I'm here to make sure she celebrates it in style!" Cam announced and Sam turned to him with a long suffering look in her eyes. "What?" She was embarrassed enough that she'd forgotten it was her birthday coming up but she'd had no plans to actually celebrate it anyway. Being the head of Atlantis didn't afford her time for such things. "Ohhh, no." She tilted her head as she looked at him. "No, Sam, you're not planning to _work_ through your birthday, are you?" She sighed and crossed her arms. "Aw, man! What are you planning on doing, huh? Paperwork? I'll tell you right now that ain't gonna happen." He held up his finger in warning while lifting his eyebrows and giving her a significant look.

"No, Cam, I'm actually due to go off-world on a diplomatic mission." she replied and he huffed and frowned at her. "It can't be rescheduled." she said with finality.

"Then I am going with you to make sure you _really_ enjoy it!" he declared and Sheppard laughed. Jennifer covered her mouth with her hand to suppress her giggles.

"Cam, I'm going to work, this is important." She looked at him in warning. "John and I are going to negotiate the creation of a sanctuary on a world untouched by the Wraith. It's vital we succeed. I can't afford to have you get in the way." Cam glared at her for a moment then turned to Sheppard.

"You're going as her protection detail, Shep?" he asked pointedly. John nodded.

"Yes, sir, not that she needs it, the place has never even seen a Wraith, they literally can't survive there." he replied. "Besides, Colonel Carter could kick my ass six ways from Sunday, if she ever felt like it." He grinned at the horrified look Sam gave him.

"You're okay with me taking your slot then?" Cam asked seriously.

"Give up my chance to visit a garden paradise so my commanding officer can be annoyed on her birthday? Sure thing, sir." John joked.

"Great! That's settled." Cam concluded and Sam whirled on him as John spluttered.

"Hey! Cam, you can't do-" She stopped when he raised an eyebrow and smiled knowingly at her. She ground her teeth before closing her eyes in frustration. "Fine! Sheppard, brief the Colonel on the Urdijine later." Cam grinned in triumph and Rodney couldn't contain his laughter at John's miserable expression. Teyla smirked as well.

"And _after_ that," Cam continued, "you are taking the next two days off. I'm taking you camping!" He picked his duffel off the ground where he'd let it drop and looked at her with a huge smile on his face. Damn it! Why did he do these things to her?. She sighed, closed her eyes and nodded despairingly. "That's what I'm talking about! Let's go grab some lunch, Sam." She led the way from the 'gate room leaving a stunned John Sheppard in their wake.

"I think I just got mugged." he breathed in amazement as Rodney and Jennifer laughed. "But I understand what Teal'c meant now." He crossed his arms and Teyla looked at him questioningly. "One time, when I was debriefing the SGC, I asked him how he ever got Colonel Carter to stop working and unwind. He just said," he tried his best impression of the Jaffa warrior as he spoke, "Colonel Mitchell."

"If he smiled at me like that and asked to take _me_ camping, _I'd go_, and Teyla knows just how much I _love_ the Great Outdoors." Jennifer added with a distant smile on her face. Rodney scoffed.

"Come on. He's nothing special." He smirked until both women had given him pitying looks and walked away. "What?"

* * *

P2W-217, January 2009

"Things are real quiet here, sir." Cam spoke into his radio as Sam watched him from the DHD. "These folks are friendly and interested in trade. Though I don't know how interested they'll remain if we leave 'em with Vala for much longer. Daniel can only do so much apologising." he joked and Sam shook her head and sighed. Cam gave her an innocent, questioning look before grinning.

"That's good to hear, Colonels," came Landry's reply through the open wormhole. "I'll expect another report in twelve hours. Teal'c has contacted us from Chulak with good news, Bra'tac won the vote." Cam turned to Sam with a huge grin which she shared. "SGC out."

"Yes, sir. SG-1 out." he signed off and went to stand by Sam when the wormhole disengaged. She smiled at him as she rested her hand on her P90 and Cam took off his patrol cap and ruffled his hair. She took his cap from him to his confused look and put it on her own head, reversed, and smiled smugly as she pulled her short braid to hang around her neck. "Lookin' good, Sam." He grinned and touched her elbow to get them moving back towards the village at the base of the forested mountain path they were on. He walked alongside her and gazed down the escarpment into the valley down below. It was a breathtaking view, the tidily situated village resting in the green fields below them, while the forest flowed down the hill they were on and around the edge of the village to the foothills beyond it. Yes, breathtaking. Except for the Tel'tak flying towards the Stargate from across the valley.

"What the Hell?" Sam cried and began pulling him towards the treeline on the opposite side of the path. They moved through the trees towards the 'gate in hopes of sending a message back to the SGC and Cam pressed his radio's send button twice, waiting for the same in return, only speaking when it came.

"Jackson! Vala! Be advised we have a cargo ship coming in! Observe low emissions protocols until we find out who the Hell they are! Keep your heads down." He whispered fiercely as he followed Sam to the treeline before the Stargate then cursed silently as he saw the ship land right in the middle of the clearing. He put his hand on Sam's shoulder to stop her moving forward anymore and reached into a pocket to pull out a small eyepiece.

"Acknowledged, Cameron," came Vala's quiet reply. "observing radio silence and blending in." He smiled as Sam rolled her eyes at the former smuggler's words, but truth be told, Vala was probably the most accomplished of them all at blending into the typical galactic background. He looked through the magnifying scope as the cargo ship's main entrance extended and opened and a small contingent of humans dressed in leather and dark clothes, armed with slug throwers of various calibres and a few energy weapons, spilled out into the clearing. A severely dressed woman, with her hair tightly pinned back, was at the lead. Cameron glanced at Sam and she smiled ruefully and nodded. He activated his radio with a double tap and waited. He looked up suddenly when he heard the rumble of thunder coming from the western skies and picked up his radio again when the signal arrived.

"Guys, we have Lucian Alliance," he whispered, handing Sam the eyepiece which she used to observe the newcomers. "do our friends know anything about them?" He checked his P90 until he caught the double pop of static over his radio and returned the signal.

"Nothing, Mitchell." Daniel whispered. "They've never heard of them." Cam frowned as did Sam until her eyes widened and she tapped his forearm and pointed towards the ship. Groups of men were spiralling out from the center of the clearing, some moving right toward them. Cam pulled at Sam's arm and they began moving away through the trees.

"Cam, we have to make a run for the village it's the only way off this ridge." She whispered from behind him.

"No good, Sam. It's too exposed." He cocked his head as he heard the distinctive sound of another Tel'tak coming in to the clearing. "It's about to get really crowded on this hill." he grumbled and picked up the pace. He held up a fist and pulled Sam around him to the other side of a tree when he heard movement behind them. Crouching down he peeked around the tree trunk to see a Lucian Alliance mercenary moving through the undergrowth heading away from them. He used hand signals to indicate that and motioned for them to move in the opposite direction. Sam pulled him along while he covered their six. They were being pushed closer and closer to the exposed path down to the village and Cam knew it wouldn't be long before they were discovered. The rain started to come down a few minutes later, soaking into their green BDUs.

They finally spilled out of the trees onto the gravelly path with the short grass verge and precipitous escarpment beyond it and Cam knew they had no time left. The boulders up the path were the only thing screening them from the view of the Lucian Alliance mercenaries surely coming to secure the path. His gaze cast about for anything that could help and alighted on a tree growing up from just past the drop off beyond the path. He grabbed Sam's arm and motioned her towards it. She looked at him in puzzlement and trepidation until they got to the edge of the escarpment and looked down to see a small grass-covered shelf under them, held up by a solid slab of exposed rock which jutted out beyond that. He quickly pulled her arm and motioned for her to grab on to the tree and slide down, helping her to get a grip on it and waiting for her to signal from below she was okay before leaning out himself and grabbing a branch, then swinging out to wrap his arm around the tree. A noise from beyond the rock outcropping had him swiftly sliding down the trunk lest he be spotted, only for him to lose his grip at the bottom of the tree, swaying precariously until Sam grabbed him and pulled him to her against the rock face. He pressed into her with his eyes closed for a moment before signalling he was fine with a nod and pushing her on under an overhang from the escarpment above. It was no defense against the now torrential downpour but it kept them out of sight of the path from above, while the rock ledge they were on kept anyone from seeing them from below. The sound of voices caused him to signal Sam for silence as he pushed her back against the rock face with one arm and strained his ears to listen. A woman's voice, barking orders, yelling for the men to secure the path but not to go beyond the first bend. They weren't interested in the village then, why were they here? He heard heavy foot steps crunching up the path over the din of the rain.

"-va, the clearing is secure. Everything is ready." He recognised that voice. Where from? The look in Sam's eyes told him she recognised it too.

"Very well, I will inform my father. Now we wait for them to arrive through the Stargate." The woman's voice took on a decidedly unhappy edge. "Maybe they will finally tell us what it is that they want from us." Her footsteps moved away up the slope back towards the clearing. This was a meet-up between the Lucian Alliance and someone else? Why here? He sighed as it dawned on him. There was nothing here, that's why. Except for them. Fat lot of good it was doing them right now. He looked at Sam who gazed back at him. Soaking wet, her sandy blond fringe, darkened by the rain, escaping from under his sodden patrol cap on her head. He had to suppress a smile, she looked beautiful. Then again Sam always looked beautiful to him. He put his hand on her shoulder and pushed it down a bit indicating she should sit. She nodded and complied, they could be there a while. He sat next to her and they both unclipped their P90s, laying them down beside them and hunkered down under the downpour which obscured the sight of the valley down below.

Six hours later it was dark. And the rain, if anything, was coming down harder. Cam couldn't really remember what it felt like to be dry. They hadn't even been able to signal back to Daniel and Vala that they were safe as there was a guard only about twenty meters away. He wouldn't be able to hear much through the noise of the rain but then again neither would anyone on the other end of the radio unless Cam shouted into it, which kind of negated the whole concept of going unnoticed. With the coming of dusk it had begun getting progressively colder, and with the incessant rain he could feel Sam shivering beside him. He turned his head to look at her by the light of the planet's bright moon, which pushed through the clouds to illuminate the night and her features. She'd turned the cap to face forward, to keep a little of the rain out of her eyes. She looked pale and bedraggled with rivulets of water running down her cheek and neck, her arms crossed tightly against her chest and her knees drawn up. He grimaced. He pulled at Sam's sleeve, she turned her head to him and caught on quickly enough. He unzipped his tac vest and opened it to get all the pockets out of the way, then raised the arm nearest her over his head, she rolled and slid over his leg to huddle back against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her pulling his knees up tight against her sides. This close he could whisper in her ear over the sound of the rain without being overheard.

"How're you holding up, Sam?" She turned to look at him, still shivering, jaw clenched tight, and rolled her eyes. He nodded and pulled her in tighter, feeling her wrap her hands up around his arms over her chest. "We probably should have done this sooner. Lost a lot of body heat already." She nodded shakily. He leaned his cheek against the side of her head and felt her press into him in return. It was getting far too cold. They sat huddled together for another hour before the screaming whine of the engines of the two Tel'taks taking off and flying over their heads into orbit had them looking up into the moonlit haziness of the night. Cam reached to Sam's radio and gave the button a triple tap to signal all clear. "Jackson, Vala, come in." he croaked into the radio as loudly as he could over the din.

"Mitchell! We saw the ships leaving, no-one came to the village. Where are you? Are you guys alright?" Sam chuckled weakly at Daniel's babbling stream of questions, letting her temple rest against Cam's cheek as she shivered relentlessly.

"Yeah, we noticed that too. We're stuck on the side of the cliff. No, we're drenched and freezing." he dealt with each of Daniel's thoughts in turn. "We need a hand getting up from here, Jackson, any chance you can come by with a goodly length of rope?"

"We're on our way, Jolo says the path is dangerous in the rain at night but he's willing to help us." Daniel's words made him smile.

"Can you make it quick Daniel, I'm worried about Sam." he said softly as her eyes flicked towards him and she mewled a protest. He hushed her with a finger against her lips and she let her cheek rest against his once more.

"We'll be as quick as we can, Cameron," Vala answered in Daniel's place, "hang on just a bit longer." He held Sam more tightly against him, if that were possible, and she buried her face against his cheek, pressing her forehead to his temple as the bill of his patrol cap flattened and dug into his hair. He raised a hand to stroke against the cool skin of her cheek.

"Hang on, Sam. I've got you."

* * *

USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 1,102 days relative

"Come on, Daniel, it's movie night. We're watching the big damn movie." Sam put her hand on the linguist's shoulder as she walked up behind him in the Asgard Database room. He turned his head to look at her as if surprised to see her, looking down at his watch and smiling sheepishly. She smiled back and glanced at what he had been looking through, shimmering fields of flashing and shifting Asgard runes. "What are you reading?" He turned back to the display and frowned slightly.

"Something about the internal politics of the Altera as the Asgard viewed it." Daniel replied. "Seems they identified a few separate factions within the greater whole of Alteran society, which of course is to be expected."

"Of course, cultures aren't monolithic and heterogenous, that's how we were able to whittle away at the Goa'uld so effectively. They were never able to present a unified front against us." Sam crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side.

"Right, though they were worse than most. Seems there were two main camps. Most of what we know of the Altera is thanks to the first group, who saw it as part of their duty, to the next evolution they had seeded, to leave behind their knowledge." He pointed at a line of floating runes which Sam couldn't read. "They were the builders of Atlantis according to this." Sam nodded for him to carry on. "The other faction apparently had very little interaction with the other races, they were considered isolationists by our little grey-skinned friends and even by the Nox. Which is really saying something if you think about it."

"They disagreed with the idea of seeding a next evolution?" Sam asked and Daniel turned to her with his eyebrows raised, shaking his head vehemently.

"No, in fact they came up with the idea." he replied and Sam blinked in surprise. "They didn't want to leave any knowledge or technology behind. They wanted a clean slate."

"What is with all this book learnin' happenin' in this here room! Don't y'all know there's a movie about to be shown?" Cam barged in on them and Sam smiled at the glint in his eye. He grabbed the back of Daniel's belt and pulled the spluttering and protesting archaeologist behind him, back towards the door. "Come on, Jackson, don't want to miss your unsettlin' space courtesan now, do ya?" He winked at Sam and she laughed again, throwing Daniel an apologetic tilt of her head as he glared her way.

* * *

Auburn, Kansas, August 2010

As the engine shut off on Cam's black Mustang, Sam opened the door and stepped out onto the gravel driveway in front of the Mitchell family farm. Looking between the barn and the house, she smiled softly. It wasn't her first visit but coming here always filled her with a sense of belonging. Cam's family were so inviting and had accepted her instantly, had accepted her even before she and Cam had gotten together.

Cameron's features were slightly worried as he appeared from the driver's side and she remembered what had brought them here today. Wendy Mitchell had had an accident and been injured, Cam's father had called the base's personnel contact number and the SGC had relayed it up to Selenis. Cam had explained to the AI that her existence was a secret from the vast majority of humanity, something she had been curious about, but she agreed to remain silent while the call was coming through. It hadn't been a serious accident, Wendy had slipped and fallen down the stairs of the farmhouse, but she'd broken her ulna and smacked the underside of her chin on the bannister. Sam caught her love's eye and he nodded, reaching inside behind his seat for their duffels, she locked her door and moved towards the house. Frank was already opening the front door with a smile on his lips as he leant on his crutches.

"Cameron, Sam. You didn't need to come so soon." He beamed when Sam kissed his cheek and hugged him. "Wendy's fine, she's going to be more embarrassed than anything."

"You know Cameron, Frank. He worries when those close to him get hurt." Sam said with an indulgent smile as she looked at Cam walking towards them. He smirked and glared at her before putting an arm around his father's shoulder.

"I know. Come in, Wendy's in the living room and Emma's in the kitchen." Frank led the way inside and Cam's Aunt Emma came into the hall and embraced Sam heartily. She was an effervescent woman, Wendy's cousin from Wisconsin, she visited quite often and would be staying with them while Wendy convalesced.

"Samantha! So good you could come! You managed to bring Cameron too, bless you child!" She gave Sam a conspiratorial wink before moving to embrace a glowering Cameron. "Don't make a face like that Cam, it'll get stuck that way."

"I am not six years old anymore Aunt Emma, I'll not fall for your tricksy ways!" He embraced her and left their duffels by the stairs when Emma released him and returned to the kitchen, telling them dinner would be served soon. Cam followed his father into the living room where Wendy was waiting for them, seated in her usual wing chair by the fireplace. She had an arm in a cast and resting on a large pillow she held on her stomach and lap, while the currently unused sling still hung from her neck. She had a great deal of bruising along her neck and face but her eyes were sparkling when Cam and Sam walked into the room.

"Cameron, Samantha! You didn't need to come just to see me." She motioned them over and Cam leaned down and kissed her cheeks as she put her arm around his shoulders and did the same with Sam after he moved off.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Cam muttered to his parents' chuckles. Sam rubbed his arm as he gave her the wounded puppy look.

"The two of you must be so busy in Colorado Springs. To drive all the way to Kansas just to see me..." Wendy shook her head as she motioned them towards the loveseat close to the window which let Sam lean against Cam's arm with her legs folded under her.

"Of course we'd come, Wendy, Cam couldn't rest easy until he'd seen you, for one." Sam looped her arm through Cameron's and rested her head on his shoulder. "It was easy enough for us to get time off just now. Things are a little quiet."

It wasn't _strictly_ a lie, the last week had been nearly dead since they'd gotten Vala back from the future. They had no leads on the ships which had attacked Earth and the Tok'ra's network was turning up nothing. Analysis of the debris was inconclusive, and the ships never once sent out any communications that could be detected. Everyone at the SGC was fit to be tied.

"Recently, we've just been doing a lot of research, Cam flies me around and carries my stuff for me." Sam said with a teasing smile.

"Sam! That is _not_ an accurate description of my duties." Cam reproached her, but she just inclined her head and looked at him. He stared back and blinked a moment before looking up in recollection.

"Well, recently I have been doing a lot of that," he muttered and she grinned triumphantly, "but that's not all that I do!" He looked at his parents seriously. Frank smiled and Wendy chuckled.

"Well, you have a leg up on the house training already, Samantha." she said and Sam laughed while Cam covered his eyes with his hand.

"Sorry son, but you're whipped." Frank elaborated to his wife's laughter and his son's groans.

"Dinner's ready!" called Aunt Emma from the kitchen and Cam leapt up from the chair.

"Saved!" he cried and held out his hand to help Sam up, she took the opportunity to lean against him and kiss him gently.

"Oh, Cameron," his mother waved him over and he came to help her stand, "a letter came for you from the Landmark National in town, addressed here for some reason." She reached for the side table, but Cam lay a hand on her arm and reached for the letter himself. Opening it with a puzzled look.

"What is it, Cam?" Sam asked as he scanned the letter inside.

"They say the lease on my safe deposit box is coming up and are asking if I want to renew it." He frowned slightly. "Did you guys open a box in my name when I was a kid?" he asked his parents who shook their heads, until Wendy's eyes brightened.

"Wait! Uncle Daniel left you something in his will, it was a key. The will said it was for my first-born. I suppose you hadn't been born yet when it was written. It could be a safe deposit key, maybe." She arranged for Frank to go and fetch it as they walked towards the dining room. Sam and Cam looked at each other pointedly at the mention of his alternate self's alias. "I'd completely forgotten about it, I'm so sorry, honey."

"Don't worry about it, Mom, we'll go check it out in the morning." Cam smiled reassuringly, before easing his mother down into her seat at the dining table.

The next morning saw them walk into the Landmark National Bank on Washington Avenue and ask to access a safe deposit box. Cam produced a key on request and they were led down to the vault where a box was retrieved from the safe itself. When asked if he wanted to continue leasing the box Cam replied in the negative, to which the bank employee nodded and left to collect some paperwork for him to fill out. Sam watched as Cam opened it, sure they were both wondering what his alternate self had left behind, but hadn't included with the parcel he had stored at Cam's family home. It came as a bit of a surprise to find the box was empty.

"Well that was anti-climactic." Cam groused and tipped the box up to get a better look inside, only for a small envelope to slip down to the front of the box from its hiding place in the shadowed depths under the box's rear lip. It was a very small envelope, barely large enough for a small greeting card, and was coated in a water-proofing sealant. Cam lifted it and handed it to Sam with a look and stuffed his hand into the back of the box to make sure there was nothing else. It was a small enough envelope that it was possible it had just slipped the older Cameron's mind that it was in there. Sam broke the stiff seal around the fold of the envelope and opened it, looking inside she was shocked at the contents. There was no note or card or anything like that. "What is it?" Cam asked and she looked into his eyes before taking his hand and holding it out so as to tip the envelopes contents onto it. Upon Cam's open palm rested two 32Gb mini-SD cards and a 16Gb micro-SD card, slightly the worse for age and wear. "Mary and Joseph!" Cam cried in realisation. "Eighty-year-old flash memory!"


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**Voices from a Lost Time – Chapter 2**

Stargate Command, October 2008

Cam watched as Sam gave Jonas Quinn and Kianna Cyr a quick hug each as they walked down the ramp from the Stargate. He shook hands with the former leaders of the Kelownan Resistance to the Ori, welcoming them back to the SGC for the first time in more than four years. They had dialled in from Langara with intelligence they'd gleaned from the memory banks of Ba'al's cargo ship, which they'd appropriated after the System Lord's capture on Langara by SG-1 several months before. Now the Goa'uld was dead and his host was rebuilding his life under the guidance of the Tok'ra. Jonas handed Sam a crystal which she took back to her lab so as to extract the data from it for Daniel.

"So, Jonas, you think this artifact Ba'al was looking for could be dangerous?" Cam asked as they followed behind Sam. He watched her turning the crystal over in her hand as she chatted with Kianna. She'd been back from Atlantis for nearly four months and it was like she'd never left, the team just gelled around her again. He smiled happily, not for the first time.

"When is anything a Goa'uld wants _not_ dangerous Colonel?" asked Jonas with a grin and Cam had to shrug his shoulders with a sheepish smile of acknowledgement. "I couldn't get much off the crystal myself, which is why I brought it here. I figure Dr. Jackson and Sam will be able to piece together what we need to know."

Sam succeeded in extracting the databanks stored within the crystal and went over it with Daniel for several hours until it became clear there was no longer anything technical she could help him with, which left the archaeologist in his element. Poring over the references brought up in myths and legends. Ba'al was looking for a device, something known as the Seal of the Eternal Moment. They each tried to help him search, but he was always happiest looking through dusty books on his own. As it was they had time to kill until Daniel came back with something. A few days to kill in fact.

"Colonel Mitchell, Colonel Carter, you must be victorious!" Teal'c declared fiercely from his seat next to Kianna. Vala rounded on him in dismay as she held the ball away from Sam.

"Muscles! You're betraying us? For these Tau'ri?" her voice was all astonishment and he merely smirked.

"Indeed, Vala Mal Doran." he intoned, and Cam laughed from his position marking Jonas, who was also grinning.

"I'll cheer for you Vala! Us former hosts have to stick together! Go Vala! Go Jonas! Whooo!" cried Kiana, waving her arms over her head and clapping loudly. Vala beamed and sent a pass in Jonas' direction which he deftly plucked from the air. He wasn't able to make much forward progress before Cam's quick steps had him covering the angle. He saw Vala making an end run around Sam, who spun in the opposite direction, and floated a pass her way, only to have the Air Force officer's height and reach advantage over the former smuggler pay dividends as she tipped the pass up into the air, then flicked it towards Cam as it bobbled. Vala cursed and quickly got into a defensive position as Cam picked up the ball on the run while Jonas tried to make up ground. He took a running jump but instead of laying up over Jonas' outstretched hand he drifted off a pass back to Sam at the top of the key who bounced the ball through her legs, to Teal'c's appreciative call and Cam's grin, before faking out Vala into a leap with flick of her head and a turn of her wrists. She then leapt up and sent a shot sailing through the air to swish through the hoop. Jonas chuckled in amusement as he patted Vala on the back and Cam exchanged high fives with Sam.

"Cameron! You brought in a stringer!" Vala cried accusingly, pointing at a mirthful Sam. He frowned slightly in confusion before grinning.

"You mean 'ringer', and no, Sam's a human from Earth, and a member of SG-1." He pointed at Jonas. "I let you have the _former_ member." he pointed out cheerfully. Vala glared at him with her hands on her hips as Jonas bounced the ball at his feet with a smile. She turned her gaze to Sam.

"Samantha, you've been hiding these abilities for just such a moment, haven't you?" she accused and Sam laughed.

"Oh, Vala, I'm a soldier, remember?" She bumped shoulders with Cam who smiled at her. "I _love_ doing soldiery things... running, jumping, climbing trees. Waving around large calibre weaponry. For a long time my idea of formal evening wear was black fatigues and low visibility greasepaint. I've never been the prototypical girly girl." She walked up and rubbed Vala's arm soothingly. "Sorry I'm so much better at this than Daniel." Cam laughed and Vala glowered at him from around Sam. As if summoned by mention of his name Daniel walked into the gym with his head stuck in an open notebook, his green BDU shirt billowing behind him in his rush.

"Guys! I think I've found something." He looked between all of them as they stared at him when he brought his head up. "What?"

"Daniel, aren't you the least bit upset, _as a man_, that Samantha is so much more athletic than you?" Vala cocked her hip and jutted out her chin as she spoke. Daniel blinked, nonplussed and glanced at Sam who shrugged.

"If I cared about that sort of stuff, Vala, do you think I'd have been going through the 'gate for eleven years with a woman who knows eighteen different ways of killing me with a toothbrush?" he replied impassively while Jonas grinned behind Vala.

"She's smarter than you too." Vala flicked her hair at him as she looked away. Daniel bristled.

"We specialise in different fields. Completely different fields!" he fumed and everyone laughed.

"Have you made a discovery, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c stood up from his seat by the wall and walked towards the archaeologist with his hands clasped behind his back, neatly bringing the conversation back to something serious. Daniel blinked at him before catching on and launching into his explanation.

"Yes, thank you, Teal'c. The artifact that Ba'al was searching for, I think it may be some sort of time manipulation device." He turned and walked back out of the gym the way he came. They all stared after him in silence, Cam looked over to Sam who shrugged her shoulders at him. Daniel came back and looked at them expectantly. "Are you coming?" He walked off again. Soon they were all crowded in his lab, watching a large screen connected to his computer, where he was showing them several web pages and scanned images from old manuscripts.

"None of this stuff mentions Ba'al or the device, Jackson." Cam pointed out to Daniel's irritation.

"Well no, it wouldn't, Ba'al is only interested in it now." He raised his finger. "The device, however, _maybe_ does see a mention here, _perhaps_, in these stories having to do with Herne the Hunter." He pressed a key on his laptop and a painted scene appeared on the screen, of a band of men on horseback, the one in the lead seemed to have antlers growing from his head. "Herne the Hunter is more of a figure of folklore, legends in England speak of a ghostly hunter who stalks Windsor Forest, as mentioned by Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor." Everyone looked at Daniel with varying looks of incredulity. He carried on regardless. "However, some cultural scholars associate the figure with earlier pagan deities, gods of the hunt from various cultures such as the Gaulish deity, Cernunnos, or the Greco-Roman god Pan. These figures often have associations in their cultures with a widespread phenomenon known as the Wild Hunt, where a lone individual, usually some creature of magic variously described as an elf or troll, is harried and chased by a host of demonic or magical hunters, usually lead by the local god of the hunt. In fact in England that figure is quite often Herne." He frowned for a moment. "Strangely, in proto-Germanic cultures the Wild Hunt is most often associated with Wodan or Odin. Though I find it hard to see an Asgard leading a hunting host." He blinked for a moment, then flipped his arms over each other as he rambled on. "Unless it's a reversal of the typical legend and the one being chased is a creature of evil." He plucked at his lip until he realised everyone was waiting for him to continue. "Oh, sorry. Where was I?"

"Herne the Hunter." supplied Jonas, sharing a smile with Kianna.

"Right! Herne. Well, other stories associated with him have him taking away the prey of his hunt to be stalked 'in a distant land, where the span of years may take but a moment' which made me think time manipulation. What if," Daniel held up his hands, "he could speed up time in a localised area? You know, like a reversed time dilation field." He pointed at Sam.

"The same as what we used on Odyssey?" she asked and Daniel nodded, biting his lip with a small smile. Sam's eyes glazed over for a second as she quirked her eyebrows and crossed her arms. "It's a possibility. The Asgard technology could manipulate the flow of time either way, and we know _I_ managed to reverse time completely within a localised field. It's possible, probable even, the Ancients could do the same."

"What good would speeding up time do Ba'al?" Cam asked with a frown.

"Well he could use it to quickly develop technology for one." Sam replied. "That's assuming the only way the device manipulates time is to speed it up in the local area. We don't know that." Cam nodded.

"Alright, a good point, well made." Cam conceded "I'm glad Ba'al isn't around to take advantage of it anymore. I also agree such a thing probably shouldn't be left lying around for other bad guys to get their hands on it." He looked at Daniel again. "We'd still have to find it."

"Oh, Ba'al knew where it was, at least, he knew who had it." Daniel's smile was a little sheepish. Cam lifted his eyebrows enquiringly. "The Tok'ra knew of a Goa'uld by the name of Herian, which, by the way, is a name associated with Herne. Herian was an... atypical Goa'uld." Daniel elaborated, Sam tilted her head with a small frown. "He eschewed the usual trappings of the Goa'uld, you know, the armies of Jaffa, the thousands of slaves, fleets of vessels and stellar empires. He was most often accompanied by a small retinue of humans who hunted alongside him. He lived with them and travelled with them in a single Ha'tak, and they spent their time hunting for sport instead of demanding tribute. He was known to hold one small moon, uninhabited mind, except for animals which he would hunt for food. He would also bring back choice specimens to this moon, to hunt at his leisure." His eyebrows rose as he looked at them, his reference wasn't lost on them. "The other Goa'uld mostly ignored him, he claimed no territory and only travelled through their domains to conduct his hunts. They considered him a sort of... eccentric cousin." He shrugged. "That is until his hunt caught up a favoured slave of Svarog, one of the System Lords." Cam snapped his fingers at Sam.

"P2A-018, Latona, early 2000, NID operatives attempting to covertly study a defensive weapon called the Sentinel, which eliminated threats to the Latonans, disabled it by killing the Caretaker of the machine. Two years later, Svarog came to claim the planet and you guys managed to reactivate the Sentinel, with the help of the NID operatives, which you used on Svarog and his Ha'tak and, in the words of Marul, the leader of the Latonans, 'sent it away'." he recited from memory.

"This guy is way worse than I ever was." Jonas stared at Cam with a little bit of awe.

"I can tell you Qetesh was glad when you killed Svarog, pig of a man." muttered Vala. Daniel quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Yes, anyways, Svarog is said to have destroyed Herian and claimed all his holdings as his own, namely the moon." Daniel continued "He had little interest in it however, it being known to be uninhabited and having no mineral resources worth speaking of, he never even bothered to go there. When Svarog went away none of the other Goa'uld much cared for it either. Until Ba'al. Except according to the data in your crystal, he couldn't find it. His notes mentioned that he wondered if Svarog even knew where it was."

"Tell me you know where it is, Jackson." Cam pleaded.

"I know where it is." Daniel grinned, pointing at the screen and the image of the Wild Hunt, he worked on his laptop and zoomed in on a banner being carried by one of the huntsmen. Clearly emblazoned on the rippling cloth were six symbols painted in gold.

"Holy Hannah!" cried Sam. "You have _got_ to be kidding me! Do you know how crazy that is?" Daniel nodded manically, grinning like a lunatic.

* * *

Selenis, Luna, July 2010

Cam sat at a swivelling seat attached to an arm which hung down from one of the control consoles in Command as he watched Sam working at the station beside him. She'd braided her hair today, letting it hang down her back in a long sandy brown tail. Watching her work was one of his guilty pleasures. Guilty only because it usually meant he was idle. He was otherwise unrepentant about it all. He leaned on an elbow against the console and played his fingers across the control display, letting a small schematic of Selenis' deeper levels spin around beside his arm. He looked up to find Sam smiling indulgently at him from her console, he lifted his eyebrow at her and she shook her head lightly, pushing her glasses back up her nose. She wore them a lot more often since she retired her eagles. Cam had to admit it did things for him. He recalled that time when multiple SG-1s had come through the Stargate several years ago. One or two of the alternate Carters sported the slightly geeky look. Sam knew exactly how it affected him too. She enjoyed looking straight at him when she adjusted them, and when she wore a ponytail she took great delight in retying it every once in a while as he watched. The woman had him whipped alright.

"~Dr. Carter, may I ask you a question?~" They both looked up as Selenis' voice sounded from around them.

"~Of course, Selenis. Feel free.~" Sam replied, clasping her hands on her knees as she crossed them and swivelled in her own seat to face Cam.

"~My neural connection with yourself is especially weak, but I sense your genetic expression sites are well developed.~" Sam smiled ruefully and nodded slightly. "~I am puzzled as to why this would be.~"

"~Can you sense the heavy metal in my blood, the naquadah?~" Sam asked.

"~I have noticed the same thing with Vala.~" Selenis confirmed. Sam nodded.

"~Both of us were hosts to symbiotic lifeforms which nestled at the base of our skulls.~" Sam explained. "~When this symbiote is removed from a host it leaves behind a protein marker in our genetic code, it is fairly unique.~"

"~I believe I have detected it.~" A hologram flashed above her console beside her arm, displaying strands of DNA with several lengthy chains of base-pairs highlighted, with boxes of information floating nearby. Sam nodded.

"~That's it. To the best of our medical knowledge, these markers somehow interfere with the proper function of the Alteran gene.~" She ran a finger through the highlighted nucleotides in the hologram and looked wistfully at Cam. He inclined his head sadly.

"~This is very interesting, Dr. Carter. It seems likely that this protein marker stimulates the production of several enzymes which bond with and neutralise the main enzymatic catalysts produced by the Alteran gene.~" Sam sighed and nodded. "~Perhaps some of the treatices in my medical database could provide a solution. Another enzyme which would bond more readily with those produced by the protein marker, allowing the catalysts for the Alteran enzymes to function properly.~" Sam's eyes widened in surprise and she looked at Cam.

"~Are you serious, Selenis?~" she asked while looking up at the ceiling. "~Could that work?~"

"~Your Alteran gene expression is the result of genetic therapy is it not, Dr. Carter?~" asked the AI.

"~Yes, as is Cameron's.~" she replied. They'd explained to the base how the Alteran gene was still vanishingly rare among humans naturally, but that they'd developed a retroviral gene therapy treatment which introduced it into the genetic make-up of an individual with around a one in two success rate, although the strength of expression was variable.

"~Then it seems possible. As would improving the success rate and efficacy of the gene therapy you have developed.~" answered the AI matter-of-factly. Sam blinked at Cam who motioned at her with his hands. She broke out into a hopeful smile.

"~Could you package up any information you might think is relevent, Selenis? We're going to give Atlantus a call.~" Her smile broadened into a grin.

"~Atlantus? I have not spoken to him for a very long time. How is he?~" Sam's hand came up to her mouth in surprise.

"~I'm not sure, Selenis, I was on Atlantus for a year but I never noticed an AI of any kind.~" she looked at Cam and he shrugged helplessly. The few times he'd been to Atlantis during the time he was now certain he could understand Ancient had never resulted a voice in his head except from the puddle jumpers.

"~He was a relatively early incarnation, several thousand years older than I.~" Selenis began. "~His behavioural core functions were especially power hungry. I imagine they would only be allowed to function when fully powered. Has Atlantus been in low power mode as well.~"

"~Well the city has been running for a long time on one Potentia instead of three. The one time it briefly had a full complement was when some Lanteans returned and asked us to leave. We brought two of them back to Earth fairly quickly after we retook the city from the Asurans, though Dr. Weir never mentioned anything like an AI during that time.~" Sam explained, Selenis burbled an acknowledging sound.

"~His personality engrams could be charitably described as... unrefined... it is also possible he was simply switched off.~" offered Selenis and Cam burst out laughing. "~I will sort through and package the relevant portions of my database, Dr. Carter, it will be ready for transmission in approximately 3.21 days. It may require several minutes to transmit fully.~"

"~Dr. Beckett will be giddy as a school girl, I'm sure.~ It's about time we took a couple of new ZPMs to Atlantis isn't it, Cam?" She looked at him eagerly and he grinned.

"Oh, I can't wait to see the look on McKay's face when we tell him about Selenis." He rubbed his hands together in barely disguised glee. "Let's get on the line to General Landry."

* * *

Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Miami, October 2008 (alternate timeline)

Cam took the sandwich Sam offered him and kissed her gently in gratitude. She smiled and rubbed his back for a moment as she walked past him and took Daniel's sandwich to him. Cam took a big bite of the crusty baguette, filled with roast beef and chewed happily, waving Sam back over after his first mouthful was done. She came to stand by him with a questioning look and he leaned close to her.

"I love you." he whispered, smiling. She grinned and happily accepted another kiss from him before going to sit down to eat her own sandwich. He turned back to face the vast expanse of the Atlantic ahead of their chartered cruiser and navigated out further eastwards, out towards Port Royale on South Bimini Island, where they were spending a long weekend. They were staying at one of the smaller summer homes of a British aristocrat, the loan of which was a gift to Daniel.

"These are very good, Sam." Daniel complimented and she burbled happily while taking a bite of her own baguette. "Is that tomato salad I spy?" She nodded.

"With apple and petit pois." she elaborated and he grinned, leaning into the hamper to take the bowl of salad and helping himself to several large spoonfuls into a smaller bowl for himself.

"Don't eat all of it yourself, Jackson, or I'll throw ya overboard." warned Cam, looking at the archaeologist over his sunglasses. Daniel smirked evilly in return, but left plenty of salad in the bowl. "What about Merlin's stash. Did they ask you about that?" Daniel looked up, reminded of what they had been talking about before the tangential discussion on the Zombie Apocalypse had begun. Turns out Cam was a rank amateur to Daniel when it came to his plan for survival.

"Uh, yeah, though the only access to the place being transport rings presents a problem." Daniel replied. "As far as we know Ba'al came and cleared the place out long ago, though I suppose Truth of Spirit would be a problem for him." he chuckled softly. "However, they did fly me to go visit that British lord with the library full of Merlin apocrypha, hence our lovely little jaunt this week. I managed to get my hands on several of the books I hadn't read the first time around." Cam continued eating his sandwich, happy that Daniel was allowed some measure of latitude to do the things he loved the most. "Most interesting was a passage which I've never encountered in any other tale of Merlin." Sam nodded for him to continue while she spooned out some salad for herself. "About how his most hated enemies were not those that he most feared, which would have been the Ori, but those that had betrayed the hopes of his kith. The passage describes how 'Myrddin walked to the lands where dwelt the Sons of Thule in Exile. Men who above all others, honoured the lords of the Desdamendi. Those who left nothing. And there, on the Plains of Ar Domûn, he waged a magical battle against them for they did release a voracious scourge upon the land.' Thule is one of those lost islands like Atlantis, supposedly situated in the 'seas far north of the land of the Picts, where the Sun rises and sets but once a year.'" Sam's eyebrows rose and Cam paused in his chewing to stare at Daniel. "I know! What if, just as a hypothetical here, Atlantis wasn't the only city-ship that left Earth millions of years ago. Can you imagine that?" Sam stood and opened the cooler, grabbing a bottle of beer and a coke. She handed the beer to Daniel and the coke to Cam, who thanked her with a kiss, she went back to the hamper and prepared a bowl of salad, then grabbed a beer for herself from the cooler when she was done.

"Another city-ship? Sounds far-fetched, Jackson. Especially if it's that far north." Cam posited, but Daniel shook his head after taking a swig of his beer.

"Not so much." he explained. "Apparently these men of Thule shared the precepts of their mythical forebears who considered the Southern Pole to be the source of all material evil in the world. Believing that their Golden Age had come and gone." Sam tilted her head as she handed Cam the bowl of salad, which he dug into, and took a drink of her beer. "If you think about what they're saying, of the South Pole as the source of evil, you might just imagine they're talking about the Stargate." Both Sam and Cam paused mid-drink and mid-chew to look at Daniel with raised eyebrows.

"So you're saying that these 'Desdamendi' could have been another group of Alterans?" Sam asked.

"Yes." Daniel nodded.

"Who left Earth in a different city-ship?" asked Cam.

"Yes." Daniel nodded again.

"A ship called Thule." Sam posited.

"Yes." Daniel was smiling now.

"But sent back some of their own, who Merlin considered his most hated enemies?" Cam offered.

"Exactly." Daniel grinned. Cam began chewing his salad again and Sam turned to look at him before gazing at Daniel once more.

"Isn't Thule the name of that air base in Greenland?" asked Cam. Daniel passed his hand over his eyes in exasperation.

* * *

Stargate Command, August 2010

"You have no idea how crazy this is." Dr. Bill Lee's voice filled with wonder as he held a mini-SD card by a pair of tweezers. "This is flash memory that's been around since before World War II," he laughed giddily, "it's unbelievable." Sam gave the scientist a long-suffering look, while Cam tilted his head in bemusement.

"Not so much, Doc." Cam said, pointing to himself, "flew Spitfires against the Luftwaffe." Sam joined in, pointing at Cam as well.

"Saw me being born. Held my Mom's hand through the whole thing." she grinned when Cam smiled sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, I met Catherine Langford when she was eight. Top that!" he pointed at Sam with both hands. Sam raised an eyebrow and smiled. She reached into her jacket and produced a folded piece of paper which Cam instantly recognised. He blinked, nonplussed.

"You carry that with you?" he asked breathlessly.

"Most of the time. Right over my heart." she replied with a gentle smile. He smiled and leaned forward to kiss her.

"You win." he whispered as he pulled back.

"Don't you forget it." She grinned.

"What's that?" Bill asked as he pointed at the piece of paper. Sam smiled and slipped it back into her jacket.

"An IOU for one temporal paradox, paid in full." she replied to which Cam chuckled. Bill's eyebrows rose momentarily as he was about to speak, then he faltered, shaking his head.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Bill chuckled. "Anyway, I should be able to run some recovery software over these, if there's any hardware issues I should be able to do something about that as well." He picked up the micro-SD card with the tweezers, but was startled when Daniel came into his lab and called out his arrival. His fingers slipped on the tweezers which made them twist around releasing the SD card, which saw it flipping through the air across the table into the midst of his lunch.

"Doc! Be careful!" Cam cried and dug his fingers through Dr. Lee's as yet uneaten lemon chicken, gingerly pulling out the tiny sliver of plastic, now covered in lemon sauce. He glared at the scientist as Daniel sidled up to the table. "You must never ever take your eyes off one of these things. They're too damn small!" He looked at the memory card. "Whoever thought about making removable storage smaller than the nail on my pinkie should be shot." he grumbled.

"Lost a few have you, Mitchell?" Daniel asked in amusement and Cam glowered at him. Sam stifled a smirk behind her hand.

"I didn't lose one with half a year's worth of research on Merlin's weapon." Cam shot back. Daniel frowned and pointed at Cam in warning.

"I found it again!" he rebutted.

"I found it, Daniel." Vala said as she walked in. Sam laughed out loud. Daniel sighed in defeat. Vala held the back of her hand up to hide her mouth from Daniel's gaze. "He left it in my quarters." she said in a mock-whisper as an aside to Cam and Sam. Daniel whirled to face her and she smiled innocently. Dr. Lee missed it all, simply staring at his plate of chicken.

"I was looking forward to that." he said glumly. Cam followed the scientist's gaze then looked at his fingers slick with lemon sauce.

"Sorry about that, Bill."

* * *

Selenis, Luna, August 2010

"~Dr. Carter, Colonel Mitchell, I do not like this.~" Selenis murmured unhappily. Sam looked up to the ceiling of the Chair Room and sighed softly. She stood by Cameron with her arms crossed across her chest as she supervised the installation of a small naquadah bomb inside the Control Chair dais. One large enough to destroy the room without taking out the rest of the facility. It was a front line defense against the possibility of losing the Chair Room as they so nearly had just over a week previously.

"~Neither do we, Selenis. We hate it.~" she tried for a soothing tone but she couldn't quite manage it. "~It is our intention to never use this device. Please believe that.~" she pleaded while glancing to Cameron for support. He watched her, equally unhappy.

"~We must prepare for any eventuality, Selenis.~" muttered Cam as he glared at the bomb being lowered into the recess they'd cleared for it. "~Something we have learned is an absolute necessity. Foothold scenarios are unfortunately a possibility we have first hand experience of.~" He scratched at his chin. "~It's the last resort of last resorts.~" The distressed burble the AI sounded made Sam's brows crease in dismay.

"~Selenis, please trust us.~" she pleaded and Cam rubbed her lower back.

"~We'll do everything in our power to guard and defend you, Selenis. You have my word.~" he murmured solemnly.

"~Mine too.~" added Sam.

"~I trust you.~" replied the AI. The technicians connecting the bomb to it's activation triggers looked up at the ceiling. Clearly just as upset as everyone else.

"~Thank you, Selenis.~" Sam whispered.

"~Dr. Carter, Colonel Mitchell, there is an incoming subspace communication from Homeworld Command.~" Selenis intoned quietly. "~Shall I patch it through?~"

"~Please do, Selenis.~" Cam turned around and began to walk to the transporter, Sam following along behind. "Homeworld Command, this is Selenis, we read you."

"Mitchell? O'Neill here. I need you and Carter to go to Nevada." came Jack's voice over their comms. Sam looked at Cam in confusion.

"General, what is this about?" she asked. They transitioned to the transporter closest to the 'gate room and came to stand between the stairs, Selenis projected the video feed on the transparent wall before them.

"Oh, there you are." Jack blinked as they walked up, then frowned slightly. "That's a weird angle I'm looking at." Sam turned and waved to the camera she knew would be recording them. "Hunh."

"We'll have a camera put on this wall at some point, sir." Cam offered and O'Neill thought about it for a second then nodded before continuing.

"Well, turns out one of the Lucian Alliance geeks you brought back claims to have some intel, but will only talk to you two." Jack explained. "Something about Mitchell pulling her off the surface at the last second." Cam turned to Sam and reminded her of the scientist he pulled up when Sam beamed him back to the Hammond.

"We'll be there as soon as we can General, should we have one of the ships beam us or..." Sam raised her eyebrows and he waved them away, nonchalantly.

"No rush, O'Neill out." the connection winked out before they could reply.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**Voices from a Lost Time – Chapter 3**

Stargate Command, January 2006

"She stopped being 'my Samantha' a long time ago." said Martouf as he looked into Sam's eyes with a combination of sadness and longing. Martouf. Holy Hannah, everything was exactly the same, except for the SG desert camouflage as opposed to the Tok'ra variant. She thought she'd left behind anything she'd felt for him except fond memories, but now he was here and she felt something clawing at her insides.

"I've missed you." she breathed. It was true, she had. Her relationship with him had been just about as uncomplicated as any of her relationships ever got. The only thing keeping them apart had been distance. Not like Narim, whose people wanted little to do with the Tau'ri, looking down on them even. Not like Pete, who made her feel like she had to live a double life, even after she told him about the Stargate. Not like Jack, and the issues with their commander/subordinate interaction. Martouf understood what she went through on a daily basis, he lived it, _wanted_ to live it, he'd always stood by her as an equal. She felt herself drawn in towards him, but even as she slid closer the clawing at her insides continued and grew worse. Then there were the goosebumps she was feeling, like she was being watched. She looked down to see the limpid orbs of Kvasir gazing at her and blinking languidly.

"I have completed the calibrations." the Asgard stated dispassionately. She closed her eyes and sighed.

"Thank you, Kvasir." she replied weakly and glanced at Martouf. She sent a tiny little tilt of her head towards the door and he nodded slightly. They walked out together, making their way to the elevator at the end of the hall. She was going to take him somewhere private, her quarters. They entered the elevator but it wasn't empty, another one of the Carters, the one with the glasses, was inside with her SF escort.

"Oh, hey you two, how's it going with Kvasir?" she asked, pushing her glasses up to the top of her nose again. Is that what she looked like when she wore her glasses? She frowned slightly, why had Cam always watched her so closely the few times that he'd caught her wearing them in her lab?

"Kvasir has completed the calibrations, I imagine they will be making the Prometheus ready in the next few hours." Martouf replied with a slight smile which didn't reach his eyes. The other Carter nodded, with the same slight smile. "I imagine you are upset at being stranded here, Samantha?" she tilted her head from side to side with a little look of resignation.

"I understand what motivates them," she touched Sam's arm momentarily, "you know I do, Sam. Do I wish things were different? Sure, but my reality isn't doing too badly against the Ori compared to some of you, we have the cure, we have allies," she sighed, "I can only hope things will work out." She smirked ruefully. "I suppose there are worse realities to be stranded in." She looked at Sam with a glint in her eyes. "Since you'll want to stay as Samantha, maybe I should claim Louise for myself? What do you think?" Sam chuckled and the other two joined in. "Yeah, maybe I'll do that. Anyways, it's not as if I'll be alone right?" She gave Martouf a small smile. "I have my hus-" Carter was interrupted by the elevator doors opening, revealing Sam's Cameron standing there waiting with another Mitchell, he seemed to be the counterpart to the glasses-wearing Carter because she smiled very broadly at him and he smiled in return. "Hey you!" Mitchell stood next to her when he came in and they put their heads together and began chatting in low voices and chuckling. Quite a bit like her relationship with Cam at times. He came in and stood by her with his hands in his pockets, nodding to Martouf.

"Hey guys, everything set with Kvasir?" he asked and Martouf nodded.

"Yeah, Cam, we're all set." Sam replied, he nodded and looked down to the ground for several moments with a slight frown. Her eyes narrowed in concern when she saw it, something was upsetting him, she wondered what it could be. She laid her hand on his forearm and felt him stiffen slightly at her touch, when he looked up his eyes were turbulent. What was wrong with him?

"I was thinking we should bring the first alternate SG-1 with us, eight heads are better than four and all, and your alternaCarter helped you come up with this plan too." he said quickly and she blinked slightly.

"Uh, yeah, that's a good idea actually. Do you want me to come with you to pitch it to the General?" she asked, tilting her head slightly.

"No, I got it. Right after I get these two to the screening room." He hooked his thumb over his shoulder. Sam glanced over in curiosity.

"They're showing the Mitchell vs Mitchell game on a big screen." Carter gushed and looked at the Mitchell beside her. "Cam got twenty-three points, twelve assists _and_ six rebounds!" She bumped shoulders with the man as he rubbed the back of his neck. Cam chuckled and settled into a wide smile.

"Yeah, Last Shaft of Krypton is a star." he threw over his shoulder and received a clap on the back for his sentiments.

"Says Mr. Triple Double Shaft Prime over here." They both laughed as the doors opened on the level with the recreation room. Cam stepped out as did Carter, Mitchell and the SF. Carter turned and held the door open with an arm.

"Do you guys want to come watch? I hear the female Cameron is _shamefully_ pretty." She grinned. Cam frowned at her and tried to steer the invitation in a safer direction.

"All the Carters missed it since you guys were working so hard, you too Martouf, guess you're an honorary Carter for the time being." He smiled slightly. "Want to come watch?" Sam glanced at Martouf who lifted his eyebrows.

"We still have some things to sort out, we'll catch up okay?" she replied when she turned to look at Cam once more, his eyes flashed with something she couldn't identify. Sadness? Distress? He nodded and looked away, raised a hand in farewell and turned to walk down the corridor, motioning for those with him to follow. Mitchell watched Sam for a moment before glancing at Martouf, then turned to follow Cam. Carter watched Sam for a while longer still, her eyes flashing something behind her glasses that Sam couldn't read. She turned and released her hold on the elevator door, which slid shut, blocking out the view of Carter reaching out for Mitchell's arm. The clawing at Sam's insides came back in full force.

"It's not _me_ you want." Martouf said gently from beside her. She turned to look at him in alarm. "It's closure. Neither of us did anything wrong, Samantha, we just didn't work out in the end. We weren't meant to be, that's all." He smiled at her sadly when the doors opened on sublevel 25 and she stepped out, only to stop when Martouf didn't follow her. "You're with who you're meant to be with, Samantha." She blinked in surprise. "Janet said the game was very good. I think I'm going to go watch it, I'll make your excuses." He smiled as the doors closed and her shoulders slumped a little. She didn't try to stop him going. Was he right? Had she just wanted closure of any kind? She remembered Carter's eyes boring into hers just before she had released the door of the elevator. She'd been trying to tell Sam something. Sam turned around to walk to her quarters. Martouf had given her a lot to think about. Who was she meant to be with?

* * *

Urdijina, M3R-921, December 2007

Sam looked around through the faint pink light shining down on the lush fields of the valley where she'd landed the puddle jumper after bringing it down from the Stargate in orbit around M3R-921, or Urdijina as the natives called it. She straightened her Atlantis jumpsuit and stepped from the exit ramp with Cam just behind her. Resting the heel of his hand on the stock of his P90, he gave a low whistle as he looked out to the far horizon. A towering forest of arrow-straight conifers stood off in the distance, standing guard in front of an imposing range of craggy, snow-capped mountains beyond.

The rose sheen was a result of sunlight reflecting off the dust which formed the nebula covering the region of space containing this solar system. Whatever it was, the effects on the Wraith were astonishing, they were unable to come anywhere near this system or the others nearby. Their ships would lose power and drift through the void. However, before that they would suffer from navigational failures akin to disorientation, changing course randomly and spontaneously. If they were lucky these course changes would take them out of the nebula before their power plants failed, otherwise they'd suffer greatly before they died. The hull of the ship would wither and crack, splitting and rupturing in ugly fissures. Eventually killing the ship outright. Individual Wraith suffered far worse, but luckily for them, died more quickly. All in all it would make a perfect sanctuary planet if they could move the Stargate down from orbit. Something Rodney believed was a possibility. The strange thing about this planet was that its 'gate address wasn't in the Ancient database in Atlantis. Sheppard's team had recovered it from the computer of a Wraith hive ship which listed the entire area as a navigation hazard and the Stargate itself as forbidden.

Sam glanced back at Cameron as he came to stand next to her and smiled. She had to admit he filled out the Atlantis jumpsuit well. She smiled appreciatively at him before turning to walk around the side of the jumper to greet their hosts.

"Remember, Cameron, leave the talking to me, try not to woo the Magistrate's daughter." She chuckled at his horrified look.

"For shame, Sam. I'd never do anything like that." He was smiling but there was something in his eyes which made her glance his way again. A sadness? Before she could think more on it the planet's leaders were greeting them.

"Colonel Carter, it is very good to see you again. You and your people are always welcome on Urdijina, I assure you." The tall, willowy administrator gave her a shallow bow which set his flowing robes to ruffling about him and Sam returned it to the same depth.

"Magistrate Urisca, I thank you for your continued welcome and hospitality. It is always a great honour to visit your world and your people." She indicated Cameron and the administrator followed her gaze with interest. "This is an old friend of mine, who is visiting Atlantis and expressed great interest in your world, Colonel Cameron Mitchell. Cameron, this is Magistrate Urisca of the Urdijine." She smiled as she watched Cameron bow down deeply as she had taught him to do. Urisca smiled broadly and held his hands up to his forehead.

"Please, friend, look up and be welcome among us." Urisca's mellifluous voice contained genuine warmth and pleasure at the new acquaintance and Cam looked up holding his own hands to his forehead. "Be recognised a friend of the Urdijine, Colonel Mitchell." He gave Cam the same shallow bow which marked the relation and Cam returned it.

"It is my honour to visit your world and your people, Magistrate Urisca." Cam smiled and gave Sam an insufferable wink and Urisca clapped his hands in appreciation.

"Splendid, splendid. Another visitor from the City of the Ancestors is always a boon to my people." He indicated the others standing by him. "Colonel Mitchell, these are the members of our Council," Urisca motioned to the other council members in turn and introduced them, they each bowed and received one in return, "my wife, Jinaiya, she is the People's Herta," a short woman with greying hair at the temples and a freckled face smiled at them happily, "Ildona, the Farmer's Herta," a weathered man with a slight frame but powerful arms greeted them with a friendly nod of his head, "Orbaro, the Blacksmith's Herta," a muscular man, ruddy-skinned and shaven-headed, smiled stiffly under his full beard, "and Yeva, the Hunter's Herta." a tall woman with sharply chiselled features and piercing eyes watched them warily, her long braided hair wrapped over her shoulder. "We have discussed your proposals Colonel Carter and wish to hear more of the worlds beyond this one. We greatly wish to meet new peoples and form new relations." Urisca smiled broadly.

Urisca led them towards the good sized village in the near distance, the largest of many villages and farming communities which dotted the landscape of the valley, several multi-story buildings with thatched roofs and smoking chimneys dotted the banks of the river which curved along the center of the valley, fed every once in a while by silver lines of flowing water cascading from the highlands on either side of them. At the center of the village stood the tall spire of the the Council Tower which was their ultimate destination. They were served a short traditional repast of roasted sweet meats, which was eaten while standing around an open fire, then sat at the curved council table to begin the discussions. She worried how Cam would take it but she was pleasantly surprised to find him alert and affable when he was asked for his opinion. The council's main concerns were security related, most brought up by Yeva whose purview it was. Sam assured them that until they could work out a way to relocate the Stargate they would only be referred communities who would not require access to it for their trade and well-being. And even after the 'gate was relocated their address would never be revealed to anyone whom the Urdijine had not met before, in person, in Atlantis. With Yeva now cautiously satisfied, discussions moved to more practical concerns of where new communities could be built when the time came. Cam expressed an interest in how the Urdijine would organise the defenses of these communities and Yeva offered to show him around and explain what the main threats were on their world. Mostly some rather larger than normal predators. He accepted and Sam watched him leave with the Hunter's Herta as a rather disconcerting feeling coursed through her. When she turned back she found Jinaiya and Ildona smiling at her in a rather strange way. It wasn't long before they arrived at a tentative agreement, much to Sam's delight.

"This is all acceptable to us, Colonel Carter. Under these conditions and circumstances, we would be happy to offer our welcome and hospitality to any peoples you would consider worthy." Urisca concluded and the other Herta around him smiled broadly and nodded. Yeva returned with a very excited Cam at that point, and she also nodded in acknowledgement of the agreement. Cam sat by Sam once more and leaned in to whisper.

"You gotta see the size of some of the predators they hunt out beyond the northern forests. Foot long canines, Sam." He held his hands out to indicate the size and Sam nodded with a smile. She knew of the creatures and how they roamed beyond the northern end of the valley, unable to move through the protective boundary of the giant trees.

"Colonel Carter, Colonel Mitchell." They turned back to Urisca and stood when he did, with the rest of the Council following suit. "In recognition of the agreement we have reached with the people of the City of the Ancestors, we now make available to you the Caverns of Aleminu, so you may bathe in the purifying waters, before concluding our treaty." He bowed along with all the other Council members, a bow deeper than they would give to a friend. Sam blinked in surprise and glanced at Cam who was also looking on in confusion.

"We thank you, Magistrate Urisca... and humbly accept this hospitality from your world and your people." she replied formally to Urisca's pleased smile. "Though we beg your indulgence of our ignorance as to its significance." Urisca nodded in understanding and motioned for Jinaiya to proceed. The councilor bobbed her head and walked around the council table to loop her arms through both Sam's and Cam's to lead them forward to the door.

"Those who come to us from the City of the Ancestors and form a binding agreement with us, are required to spend the evening before concluding the accord within the Caverns of Aleminu, there to bathe in the hot springs." she explained and Sam looked at Cam over the top of the woman's head. He raised an eyebrow and a smirk crossed his lips for a moment before becoming _that_ smile.

"An onsen?" he asked and chuckled at her confused look. "I was stationed in Japan for seven years after transferring out of the Middle East. I've been to a few hot springs. I can't think of anything better to celebrate your birthday, Sam."

"It is your Birthfeast today, Colonel Carter?" asked Jinaiya excitedly, Sam nodded, finding herself being swept along by their enthusiasm. "Oh, joy to you, my dear, joy to you!" The woman burbled happily as they found themselves on the front steps of the Council Tower, facing a line of four white-robed youths who bowed deeply to them. "Please go with the Aleri, they will guide you to the Caverns and guard your privacy. All has been prepared?" she looked to a young woman who nodded in return.

"It has, mother, the Caverns wait in readiness." Sam remembered the girl from an earlier meeting, Urisca and Jinaiya's child. She was only joking when she warned Cam about wooing her but she did notice the way the young woman glanced at Cam appreciatively.

"We will await your return later in the evening." Jinaiya bowed to the same level she had inside in the Council chamber, deeper than to a friend.

"Thank you, Jinaiya." Sam bowed to her shallowly and Cam followed her lead. She was relieved to see Jinaiya nod happily, so she turned to the youths who were their escorts. "We are in your care, Aleri." She bowed to the same shallow level, along with Cam, and the youths bowed deeply in return and took up positions ahead, behind and to either side of them as they walked along a path towards the ridge line which angled close to the village not far beyond its borders.

* * *

USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 1,121 days relative

Vala bounded towards Sam and leapt into the air to land just in front of her and then wrapped her in her arms.

"Thanks so much for doing this, Samantha!" cried the former smuggler in raptures, and Sam laughed, patting her friend on the shoulder.

"I'm just doing my small part, Vala. You and Teal'c have done all the hard work, and Cam helped put together all the power systems from the F302 he cannibalised." She looked over Vala's shoulder at the Jaffa who nodded to her with a warm greeting. "Are you all set, Teal'c?"

"Indeed, Colonel Carter. This vessel will soon have a pool." He glanced over his shoulder at the rear of the flight bay, where he and Vala had designed, arranged and constructed a large pool, some twenty-four meters by twelve meters, girded with something resembling wood panelling, with a wide pseudo-wood deck encircling the pool itself. It was two and a half meters high, but that meant the pool could be two meters at its deepest point. The shallow end was one meter deep and it began to gently slope after eight meters to a similarly eight meter long deep end. One corner of the shallow end was rounded off and walled in and lined with underwater seating and jets recessed into the walls. Vala had designed it all and Teal'c, Cam and even Daniel had helped put it together under her direction. Cam had also helped with the power, heating and lighting as well as integrating the filtration systems Sam had contributed. Now came the final part, which Sam had needed to very carefully program into the Asgard Core.

"Ready?" she asked as Vala was positively bouncing up and down beside her breathlessly.

"Yes, Samantha, hurry! I want to go swimming!" she cried and Sam grinned, pressing a few buttons on a hand held device, a faint whirring sound could be heard then the splashing and crashing sound of water hitting the lightweight poly-alloy used to line the pool itself. Vala gave a little squeal and ran to one of the sets of wooden steps which climbed up to the wooden deck around the pool and pointed excitedly into it. Sam and Teal'c joined her to see the dozens of points of shimmering white light over the shallow end from which would disgorge over four hundred and thirty thousand liters of water to fill the pool over the next few hours, creating it from pure energy. Vala laughed giddily and made for the edge, taking the short leap into the shallow end and running to stand under the torrent of water pouring out of the nearest shimmering light. Sam grinned, but quickly dialled back the flow at the points nearest Vala so the raven-haired woman wouldn't get knocked down when she got there. Vala stood under the water and jumped up and down on the spot, spinning around and crying like a giddy child. Teal'c stood beside Sam as they watched Vala swinging punches into the waterfall as it fell out of the sky in front of her.

"I think I'm going to have to hit the gym more often, Teal'c. Vala's going to want me to wear a bikini to match hers." she told him as an aside, she faked a look of concern but the sparkle in her eyes gave her away. Teal'c pulled his head up slowly from where he looked at her with a small smile and gazed out over the slowly filling pool and the mad thief running around the shallow end under a series of torrents yelling her head off.

"I believe you mean _you_ will want to wear a bikini to entice _Colonel Mitchell_." he raised an eyebrow as he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. Sam giggled nervously and blushed crimson, unable to meet his gaze. They turned at the sound of someone coming up the stairs and blinked to find General Landry wearing long swimming trunks and holding a beach ball at his side.

"Come on in, General!" cried Vala from under a waterfall. "We'll have it filled in an hour or three." Landry chuckled and lifted his eyebrows at Sam and Teal'c with a grin plastered across his face.

* * *

Area 51, Nevada, August 2010

They flew a puddle jumper from Selenis to Area 51, it took most of a day at maximum speed but they had promised the eggheads their own jumper to take apart a while ago and Jack had said there was no rush. So they enjoyed the coziness, though flying a jumper with someone in your lap and kissing your neck wasn't that easy. Coming in cloaked over the Nevada desert was kind of exciting as well. They flew right over the fences at the edge of Dreamland and even buzzed a few of the UFO spotters who liked to congregate at a few points. Sam slapped his arm and Cam laughed. After they got on base it didn't take long for them to arrive at the interview room to which the Lucian Alliance scientist had been brought. She was dressed in the jumpsuit typical of those being held at the facility. They both frowned slightly at it, but technically she was a prisoner. Even if she was being considered for release.

"Hello again, I suppose we weren't formally introduced last time. Colonel Cameron Mitchell, United States Air Force, this is Dr. Samantha Carter, we're with SG-1." Cam pulled out a seat for Sam and let her sit before taking his own across the table from the dark-haired, olive-skinned woman. She regarded them both pensively for a moment.

"My name is Uliria Heidal. I was a scientist among my people. Until the Ori came." Sam sighed and looked down for a second while Cam nodded in understanding. It had been their fault the Ori had come, regardless of their having defeated them in the end. Cam turned to Sam and she nodded slightly.

"We're sorry to hear about that. We really are." she said, turning back to face Uliria. The woman snorted lightly and looked away.

"I know. I also know you liberated my world, late as it was." She looked back at them and there was gratitude in her eyes. "I also know you can't carry the burdens of us all on your shoulders, but my people have a saying, 'a void must be filled.'"

"Nature abhors a vacuum." Sam muttered and Uliria nodded.

"Just so, and if there is one thing the Lucian Alliance is good at, it is finding a 'void' to 'fill'." She glanced between them.

"We were told you have intel you wish to trade with us, but my understanding is you're likely to be released, to your choice of world." Cam prompted, leaning forward. Uliria snorted more loudly and rolled her eyes.

"Yes I have intelligence I wish to trade." she began. "I wish to trade it now because I _don't_ want to be released." Dawning realisation crept up on Cam and he looked at Sam and saw the same in her eyes. "I was in charge of maintaining the Stargate connection during your assault. The only reason I was doing that was because Kiva had my predecessor killed, to prove a point to Dr. Rush." Sam's gaze turned steely and angry, Cam's own jaw clenched and he looked away. "If I am released I will be taken by the Alliance again. I don't want that, I never wanted to work for them." She paused looking at both of them in turn. "I want to work for you." They glanced back at her and her eyes were hard. "I don't agree with everything you do, but I prefer your reasons for doing them." She looked pointedly at Cam. "That... and you waited for us, as many of us as you could."

"We'll take it up with The Powers That Be. You understand we can't agree to anything ourselves." Cam offered and she nodded. "It might help if you gave us some idea what your intel might be." She nodded again.

"The Lucian Alliance isn't really interested in Destiny." She smirked at the look of surprise in their eyes. "Only Masim is. And he is only interested in it because of the people who told him about it. People he meets with from time to time." She tilted her head to the side and Cam nodded, standing up. Sam followed suit and they walked out to discuss things with Homeworld Command.

Thirty minutes later they were sitting in a small briefing room, reading several files, while waiting for a conference call with the Pentagon. Cam pushed the file he was reading towards Sam and tapped his finger over a line which she read then glanced at him with a small nod. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, they'd come to a decision. Just in time as well because the screen before them flickered from the logo it had been displaying since they'd arrived to an image of Jack O'Neill adjusting his shirt.

"Afternoon, sir." Cameron said, sitting up straight. Jack was startled and looked at the monitor then glared off-screen for a moment.

"How many times do I have to tell you, Wilson? Not until I say 'go'!" He nodded when he received a muffled 'sorry, sir' then turned to them. "Close your eyes a sec." They looked at each other and Cam smirked while closing his eyes. "Alright, Wilson, go." They opened their eyes again. "Afternoon, Carter, Mitchell." Jack intoned in a good imitation of a professional General.

"Yes, sir. Afternoon." Cam replied with a smile. Jack looked at Sam pointedly.

"One of these days I'm going to reassign Walter to my office, you know." He glanced off-screen with a mock-glare and Sam chuckled.

"You'd have several SG teams practicing incursion and extraction protocols of the Pentagon in preparation for staging a rescue op, Jack, including SG-1." She looked at Cam who grinned.

"You kidding? We'd be on point." he added. O'Neill glanced off-screen again.

"You hear that, Wilson? Guess I'm stuck with ya." he grumbled to an amused 'yes, sir' from the unseen Tech Sergeant. He glanced down at the sheet of paper in front of him before looking up again. "So this Uliria Heidal has info on a third party who told the Lucian Alliance about Destiny. It wasn't Telford?"

"That seems to be the case, sir. If the intel is credible." Cam conditionally confirmed.

"Which we won't know until we check it out." He balled the paper up and threw it away, probably at Wilson. "And what she wants in return is to work for us? Mercenaries."

"There's Mercenaries then there's mercenaries, Jack." Sam fingered a transcript in front of her. "It seems she was on the Lucian Alliance's 'incentive' program as opposed to its 'remuneration' program."

"Meaning she worked for them and they paid her by letting her keep working for them." O'Neill muttered and they nodded. "If she's credible." They nodded again. "Well if she is, what do we do with her? Is she any good?"

"She maintained a wormhole connection to Destiny using store-bought computer equipment from Earth and program interfaces written by Dr. Rush." Sam offered.

"Right. So she's good." He scratched his chin. "Still..."

"Yes, sir. She has... security implications." Cam confirmed. "At least... she does here in the Milky Way." O'Neill's eyes widened and he looked to Sam who nodded.

"She has no family, no ties left to her homeworld, which is where we'd send her and where the Lucian Alliance would find her again. No desire at all to be anywhere they could reach her, and since they've shown they could reach her even on Earth..." Sam paused for emphasis, "she would jump at the chance, General." O'Neill frowned then shrugged.

"I'll take it to the IOA. We'll see, give me a little time, O'Neill out." he signed off with another glare off-screen.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**Voices from a Lost Time – Chapter 4**

Herian's moon, P6C-211, October 2008

Cameron looked around the clearing where the Stargate stood amid overgrown vegetation and crumbling, overturned stones. Herian must not have made much use of the Stargate even when he did control the moon, preferring to fly in and out by Ha'tak. In fact, now that he looked at it, The 'gate was listing forward at an angle, which is probably why he'd stumbled when he came through.

"Jonas, dial Earth and send the MALP back, would ya?" he asked the shaggy haired Kelownan. The man smiled and nodded, heading for the DHD with Kianna Cyr moving towards the MALP. Cam took off his green patrol cap and gave it a flick before ruffling his hair and putting it back on. Sam came to stand next to him and gave him her patrol cap to hold. She undid the ponytail at the nape of her neck and retied it once more, taking her cap back when she was done.

"Did you stumble when you came through the 'gate too?" she asked and he nodded, smiling slightly, still distracted by her hair. "Herian must not have liked using the 'gate much." He shook his head. "I don't think we've got a lot of time until nightfall." She pointed at the sky and he followed her gaze, seeing the large gas giant in the darkening sky.

"Jackson, any idea how far to Herian's hunting lodge?" Cam asked. Daniel looked over at him and frowned slightly before lifting his eyebrows in understanding.

"Ah, the few mentions of it where Herian is said to have abducted his victim by horseback, as opposed to a chariot, mention that it was less than a day's ride from the 'Portal of Water' they walked under." he elucidated. Too vague.

"T-man, Vala, find us a place to spend the night while we walk." His request received compliant nods in return. "We'll set off now but we stop at nightfall unless you find a good spot first." He rounded up his team and they began moving, Vala and Teal'c checking through the trees on either side of the path for a likely camping spot as the sky darkened quickly. Vala eventually radioed for them to home in on her and they found her in a small clearing with a fast moving brook not too far away. "Nice, Vala." She beamed at the compliment. "We'll hunker down here for the night. Let's set up camp." Half an hour later they had three tents set up, with the ladies due to share the larger one, and a small fire where they were boiling water. They'd set up a watch rotation for the night as well, to keep an eye out for predators at the very least. When his time on watch was up Cam made his way to the women's tent, along the side of the tent he knew she'd be, and called out for Sam in a piercing whisper. He heard her turning and getting up, and he walked to the front of the tent, satisfied. She came out a few moments later and gratefully accepted the tin cup filled with coffee he offered her.

"You should head to your tent, Cam. Get some rest." She gave him a soft smile he could clearly see in the slightly orange half-light reflected from the gas giant. He shook his head.

"It's not often you get a sight like this, Sam. I'm going to stay up a bit longer. I'll be fine." He looked up into the night sky, taking in the purple streamer which seemed to run across the middle of the gas giant and extended out into space beyond it. Some sort of dust cloud or debris field around the massive planet. She nodded slowly, following his gaze.

"You're right. I wouldn't mind the company either." She looked his way and he smiled. "That was one of the things I couldn't get used to in Atlantis. I didn't get to go off world very often. I guess I'm not quite ready for a full command." Cam frowned slightly. "I don't mean it that way. It's just, I still prefer a field unit." He nodded.

"Me, I just get antsy if I go a while without running around in the woods with a gun." Cam joked and Sam laughed softly. "I'm not much for hunting, but I like the outdoors, you know?" She nodded. They spent much of the next forty-five minutes chatting about nothing in particular or sitting together in comfortable silence. He couldn't reasonably put off heading to sleep any longer and bid her good night with a pat on the shoulder. She smiled and patted the back of his hand as he left for the tent he was sharing with Teal'c.

In the morning, they packed up in less than an hour and were on their way after a quick meal of MREs and coffee. It took them only a few more hours to get to a large wall which ran across the path, with a carved archway allowing the path to continue into the large structure built on top of the path itself. The trees seemed to continue past the wall on either side of the building. As if someone just ran the wall through the forest and built the structure over the road as a gate house of some sort.

"I think this is it. The start of it at least." Daniel opined as they peered into the darkness of the structure. "I doubt this place has seen anybody since Herian was killed by Svarog." They walked under the arch and carried on through the building, with it's small series of connecting tunnels which must allow access to the upper floors, and out the other side. It was indeed a continuation of the forest, except it only lasted a hundred meters or so before letting out into a wide grassland of high scrub brush and solitary trees and rocky outcroppings which grew into low, sloping foothills. In the middle distance stood a tall pyramid shining silver in the morning light. Clearly the landing pedestal for Herian's Ha'tak. This must have been his hunting grounds. Probably encircled on all sides by the stone wall.

Fifteen minutes saw them entering the pyramid through the entrance at its base, and walking through the colonnaded hall made of the same grey stone as everything else they'd seen on the moon so far. However, at the heart of the pyramid was an empty space. As if the pyramid was hollow and dropped on top of something else. They proceeded forward by the light streaming in through several windows high up in the sloping face of the pyramid above them, which didn't provide a great deal of illumination. Only enough to see the crumbling ruin at the center of the space. Broken cylindrical columns of stones rose out of a wide plain of water, only an inch deep over a cobbled parade ground. Low walls girded the space in various states of disrepair as they ran across the area at irregular angles. All funnelling them towards the center, where stood an Ancient control pedestal. Cam cursed and stamped his foot in frustration, splashing water all around him.

"Nuh-uh, screw _that_ noise!" He rounded on Daniel while pointing at the device. "Stay the hell away from it, Jackson. I am _not_ getting my ass kicked by another Black Knight!" Daniel blinked at his outburst then narrowed his eyes and drew his lips into a tight line.

"I doubt there'd be one here, these pedestals were used to control all sorts of things." The archaeologist looked around them. "I also don't see a sword in a stone anywhere so I'm pretty sure no Black Knights will be forthcoming." Cam glared at him in warning. "Mitchell, we've got to do this." Sam walked to Cam's side and put her hand on his arm and he sighed, closing his eyes.

"Fine, but check it out from a distance first." he groused. "Worst designed control consoles in the history of the universe..." he grumbled as he walked away, trailing off into a muttered series of imprecations at the ridiculousness of the things. He leaned against a wall, hugging his P90 against his chest and glowered at the immediate vicinity in general and at the device in particular. Sam leaned against the wall next to him, her arm touching his.

"I can't disagree with you on how idiotic these things are. They are horrifically unintuitive interfaces." she said with a smile as she glanced at him. He rolled his eyes and bounced his forehead off her shoulder.

"I know." he breathed softly. "Just they only ever seem to come attached to ludicrously dangerous things. The sort of things where safe operation shouldn't be hampered by poorly designed and cumbersome controls." He held out his hand and counted off on his fingers. "That time looping machine on P4X-639, the superweapon on Dakara, the Black Knight control in Merlin's Library on Camelot, and on, and on, and on." he muttered while staring down at the cobbles under the heel deep water, only rippling from the footsteps of his teammates as they walked around the pedestal.

"Maybe they're not unintuitive and cumbersome to the Ancients." she posited. "They were much smarter than we are after all." Cam snorted before frowning slightly as he stared at the surface of the water at his feet. No longer were the ripples uneven and shifting as if from the movement of his teammates alone. Now there was a steady underlying ripple which seemed to be coming from everywhere. "Do you feel the ground shaking or something?" Sam asked and she was right. He looked up and saw a light sprinkling of dust falling down through the shafts of light from the windows in the east face of the pyramid. Shafts which were soon broken intermittently as something passed in front of them.

"Guys! We are leaving. Someone is coming." he cried as he pushed off from the wall quickly followed by Sam who had soon spotted what he was looking at. Daniel was about to protest even as the dust started falling over the device. "Come on, Jackson, we have to at least know who we are dealing with before we do anything else!" They could hear the rumbling of the engines now. Teal'c cocked an ear and looked gravely at Cameron and Sam.

"It is a Ha'tak coming in to land." he intoned. Which didn't tell them much. A hell of a lot of the Goa'uld ships were floating around the galaxy in the hands of disreputable sorts now that the System Lords were no more. Cam pointed them towards the exit and ran behind them with Sam just in front of him, splashing through the water until they got to the stone lined corridors and column-filled arcades of the pyramid structure. He heard the distinctive sound of a ring platform from down a corridor and urged his team on more stridently, catching a glimpse of someone coming out of a doorway, garbed in leather and furs. They got to the outer door and could see the wings of the Ha'tak extending over the grasslands beyond, and they continued out into the tall scrub. Cam cursed as he heard excited cries from behind them, he turned his head over his shoulder to see several men chasing them.

"Move guys. We've been spotted, there's _way_ too many of them." He pointed his P90 behind him and fired off a few quick bursts which sent the pursuers into cover momentarily, Sam and Teal'c ahead of him did the same. They had enough of a head start that he figured they could make it out of the walled enclosure which would let them escape into the forest. Within the walls they were trapped. Out there they at least had a chance. They got to the gate house and ran through the tunnel as quickly as they could. He saw Daniel and Vala running out beyond the gate and he turned around to lay down some covering fire when he heard the calls of their pursuers. Turning around again he sprinted for the archway and ran smack dab into some sort of flexible field, bouncing back into the tunnel to land on his back, winded and dazed. He coughed and groaned, looking up into the light beyond the arch to see Sam's running figure from behind. Except she was motionless. Frozen in place just outside the archway. He got up off the floor and ran to the arch again. This time stopping just before it and reaching out his hand which pressed against solid nothingness. He looked past his splayed fingers at Sam, stilled against the backdrop of the forest, the rest of his teammates similarly frozen beyond her. "Sam? SAM!" He felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck and he slumped forward against thin air, falling to his knees, his cheek pressed against nothing, then he fell backwards as his eyes rolled up into his skull.

* * *

Atlantis, July 2010

Sam stepped through into Atlantis' 'gate room and smiled broadly at the familiar faces greeting her. Cameron walked through behind her and handed off a large black case to Rodney McKay who came rushing over to swipe it out of his hands.

"I'll take those, if you don't mind." He muttered with a withering look at Cam, who just smiled in return, before the scientist turned to Sam. "Nice to see you again, Sam, but I'm going to get these installed. Maybe, _maybe_, we can talk later on." He rushed off glaring at Radek to follow him though he was waiting to say hello to Sam. She smiled at the Czech scientist with a nod. She'd catch up with him later. He nodded and turned to follow McKay.

"You know? I think he's upset with me." Cam joked and Sheppard chuckled as he, Ronon and Carson Beckett came to greet them.

"Yeah, he's still upset about you opening a wormhole to send him a lemon." John shook hands with them both, as did Carson. "Though I'm not sure if it was the citrus or the fact you dialled us while we were in _hyperspace_ that upset him the most. Or it could be you guys got yourselves a _moon base_ and won't let him play with it." He rocked back on his heels with a grin. Ronon nodded to Sam and clapped Cam on the shoulder roughly, holding on to it.

"Carter, Mitchell. Good to see you again." He pointed at Cam for a second, while his hand on Cam's shoulders shook him in a friendly way for the Satedan. "You're going to make time for a little sparring right? Teal'c said you were the one to come to if I wanted to learn some of those Sodan moves." Cam nodded and smiled.

"You got it, Ronon. I can show you some beginner moves." He grinned and Sam shook her head at him in warning.

"Just for that I'm not going to go easy on you like last time." Ronon smiled the same smile he used when looking at his lunch, and clapped him hard on the shoulder again. "I'm grabbing a bite. See you later." He turned and stalked off in his typical loping gait.

"Shouldn't oughta have said that, Mitchell." John smirked at him and Cam scratched his cheek.

"I'm getting that impression." He looked on worriedly after the Satedan.

"I hear you have something special for me, love. Some medical data from your Moon base?" Carson looked at her expectantly and Sam nodded with a smile.

"Yes, Carson. Selenis is transmitting it to Atlantis now through the connection," she hooked a thumb at the still open wormhole behind them, "she says it should be possible to counteract the effects of the symbiote protein marker and increase the efficacy of the treatment with the data you're getting." Carson smiled excitedly, nearly bouncing up and down.

"That should keep Jennifer and myself especially busy for a time. I'm looking forward to it." He nodded to Sam with his eyebrows raised. "Can I count on you to provide some samples and perhaps later on test a treatment? There aren't that many applicable subjects who match all the conditions." Sam smiled and raised her hand to reveal a silver cold storage case.

"I really did come bearing gifts, Carson." She let him take it and glanced in amusement at Cameron when she saw the beaming smile on the doctor's face. "Samples from myself and Vala. We even went to Kelowna and got some from Kianna Cyr."

"That's very kind of you, love. I'm just going to pop down to the infirmary and get these in the fridge if you don't mind, we'll have something to eat later, alright?" He looked at both of them and smiled when they nodded, turning around and scooting away eagerly.

"Like a kid on Christmas." John turned back to them with a smile on his face. "You guys really know what we like, don't you?" Cam grinned and held up a finger, then reached into the pocket of his off-world base BDUs, producing a clear crystal wedge and holding it out to John who looked at it with a raised eyebrow.

"What's that?" he asked.

"You guys picked up a Galaran memory device when you were on Earth, right? This is an Alteran language course module. Just for you." Cam replied. John made no move to take it looking skeptically at Cam instead. "It's _theoretically_ the only thing that lets me out-fly you in the puddle jumpers." Cam supplied with an evil smile. John immediately snatched the crystal out of his hand, stuffing it into his jacket.

"Alright. I'll take it, but..." John pointed his finger in warning at Cam, who shared a smile with Sam. "if Atlantis starts talking in my head and it's all, 'I AM ATLANTIS, COMMAND ME!' I'm ripping the memories out of your head with a spoon so I can figure out how to do the same on myself."

"~I AM ATLANTUS, COMMAND ME!~" came a booming voice from all around the 'gate room, surprising them all. "Sorry, Colonel Sheppard. That was a joke." Sam and Cam began laughing.

"It didn't." John looked at them imploringly and they could only nod that he had, while trying to contain their laughter.

"Atlantis, I assume you are in contact with Selenis through the Stargate?" asked a still grinning Sam, not particularly surprised the city-ship could speak English. It had all the convenience programs Selenis did not.

"I am indeed, Dr. Carter, and it has been some time since she and I last spoke. It is also favourable to see you and Colonel Mitchell once more." Atlantis' voice was unexpectedly normal. That was the surprising thing to Sam.

"Does this mean I don't have to learn Ancient?" John asked of the ceiling and Cam chuckled.

"I'm afraid the puddle jumpers do not understand English, Colonel, and lack the facilities to learn." replied the city. John's head dropped in dejection. "If you want to become a better pilot than Colonel Mitchell then you'll just have to buckled down and learn Alteran." John grimaced and glared back towards Command as if that's where the AI was. All it did was make Chuck nervous.

"I can see why the Lanteans switched you off." yelled Sheppard.

"They did not appreciate my directness as the Alterans had." rebutted the city. "And technically I can't be switched off, they simply disabled my personality engrams."

"Geez. It's like having another Rodney, except with drone weapons." John sighed despairingly and Sam laughed.

"Atlantis, do try and behave, for Colonel Sheppard's sake." she requested with a grin.

"Of course, Dr. Carter. Anything for you." replied Atlantis. John rolled his eyes.

* * *

Austin, Texas, March 2009 (alternate timeline)

Sam exited the terminal at Austin-Bergstrom International, picking the Alaska Airlines tag off her suitcase and adjusting her messenger bag on her shoulder, she looked up to find Cam leaning against a '67 Camaro SS convertible in black with the double stripes in white along the bonnet. He had the top down, and when he saw her he pushed away from the quarter panel he leant on to bury his face in her neck for a moment before kissing her deeply, caressing her cheek with the backs of his fingers. He took her suitcase and went to the back of the car to put it in the trunk, then came back to her for a proper embrace.

"Hey you, Dr. Mitchell." he murmured into her hair and she grinned.

"Hey yourself, Mr. Carter." she murmured in reply and kissed him when he smiled at her. "I'm starving by the way." She emphasised her point by taking a playful bite of his lower lip and he nodded.

"Are you guys gonna keep kissing all day? I'm hungry too!" Sam blinked and looked over Cam's shoulder into the passenger seat of the Camaro, where she found a young boy with dark hair flashing her a knowing smile. Cam chuckled and looked at her apologetically.

"Didn't I tell you to squeeze in the back, slugger." Cam walked her to the passenger side door as the boy grumbled and scrambled into the back seat. Sam looked at him questioningly as he opened her door and helped her in.

"Hi, you're Cam's girlfriend?" the boy held his hand out and she turned awkwardly in her seat to give it a shake. "I'm Cam's neighbour. He's taking me to the mall 'cause my Mom heard he was going and he doesn't want her to know he was coming to meet you." She looked at Cam and grinned at his embarrassed look, Sam turned back to the boy and held up her hand.

"Actually we got married last month." She beamed and the boy giggled.

"Mom's not gonna like that, Cam." the kid taunted as Cam sat down in the driver's seat and started the engine to drive away. Cam threw a mock-stern look into the rear-view mirror. Sam giggled.

"Cam's told me stories about your Mom, says she's a nice lady, but... overly attentive." she marvelled at how unperturbed the boy was by it all.

"Yeah, Mom's always liked to give guys a hard time." He scratched his cheek and threw Sam a look of chagrin. Cam was manoeuvring to get them going in the direction of the US-183 from Bastrop Avenue to head towards Highland Mall.

"So are you meeting your friends at the mall?" Sam asked and the boy nodded.

"We're gonna watch a movie then heading off to Darren's house for his party." he explained. "Cam said you're going on a road trip back east?" Sam nodded.

"We're going to visit someone very important. The woman who helped raise him." Sam smiled and patted his arm. He was still nervous about this because his grandmother wasn't actually his grandmother in this timeline. "I have to get her approval you see." He looked at her mock-sternly and she laughed.

"Man, I'd love to go on a road trip in a sweet car like this." He stuck his hand on Cam's shoulder. "When will you take me on a road trip, Cam?"

"We'll see, kiddo, we'll see. And put on your seat belt already!" he admonished and gave Sam a look with a flick of his head and she nodded.

"You have to understand that Cam is very serious about road safety." she explained. "He had a very serious accident several years ago and all the doctors told him he'd never regain the use of his legs." The boy's eyes were wide as saucers as he looked at Cam with a little bit of awe. "He was in hospital for most of a year and he had to learn how to walk again, then how to run."

"Wow. I had no idea, Cam." he breathed softly as he hurried to put his seat belt on. "How'd you do it?" Cam looked into the rear-view mirror then turned his head to look at Sam.

"I was told if I got through it I would be able to do anything I wanted... _professionally_, anything I wanted... well not... _anything_." He smiled as Sam chuckled, recognising Jack's style. "More than anything else, I wanted to work with someone really special that I knew." He looked into the mirror again. "I would suffer through anything, for however long was necessary, to work with them." Sam watched him for several moments in silence until she felt the tear roll down her cheek and she hurriedly turned away.

"Did you get to work with that person?" the boy asked quietly. Cam nodded.

"And then I married her." He grinned and the kid giggled, pointing at a very crimson Sam.

* * *

Selenis, Luna, August 2010

Cameron leaned back in a chair with his feet up on the table in Daniel's office. He clasped his hands over his stomach and watched Sam and Daniel sorting through the flash drives they'd brought back from the SGC after they returned from Area 51. Each drive held the contents of an SD card from the safe deposit box leased by the alternate Cam who came through the Stargate in 1929. It seemed one of the cards held mostly audio data. Nearly twenty-five gigabytes of mp3 files, with much of the rest being photos. And all of it seemed to be Daniel making notes.

There was one video file which they were queuing up in a media player now. Sam was standing behind him as he sat in Daniel's chair, with his feet propped on the corner of the table, next to her stood Daniel tapping away on his laptop to set the video to play. He pushed the laptop over and Cam turned his head while Sam put her hand on his shoulder, stroking his neck idly. As soon as the video started however her breath hitched and her fingers stilled on his neck until they began shaking slightly, he dropped his feet to the floor, turned to face the table and lifted his hand and put it over hers, holding it lightly.

The video started off very shakily, tilting and panning and wobbling, then it steadied as much as video shot with a mobile phone from a fighter jet flying at over five hundred miles an hour can be. It showed the view outside the canopy as the plane was flying at an angle and showed massive energy beams raining down from the sky onto a city below. Vast shock waves spreading from the impact sites and flattening the buildings in their path. Fire consumed everything in its wake as the clouds above the city, through which the beams passed, evaporated in a flash. They heard the voice of the cameraman, Cameron evidently, yelling angrily.

"See? That's what happens when you refuse to listen! You _assholes_! It was _arrogant_ of us to want to reverse what Ba'al did? What gives us the _right_ to do it? That's what gives us the right! All those people who didn't have to die in a plasma fire storm!" The camera panned insanely quickly to show Cam's furious blue eyes under his helmet, the mask hanging from the side of the helmet revealing his pained grimace. Sam's fingers clutched at his neck as she saw the tears in the corners of his eyes. "_Arrogance_. Arrogance is thinking you know better than people who've lived through the worst the universe can throw at them. _Arrogance_ is telling us we can't be _trusted_ not to do everything we can to save everything we know. You're damned right we can't be _trusted_ to give up! We can't be _trusted_ not to step up and save what we love! Yeah, we're arrogant, you bastards. You _have to be_ to do what we do!" He turned the camera to face the city burning under the early evening sky. "You _have to be_ to stop that sort of butchery from _ever_ happening!" He turned the camera back on himself. "So that's what we're going to do! Just watch! We're going to make this _never_ happen. Then we'll see who's _arrogant_!" The view went crazy for a while then the video stopped.

"Cam..." her voice was strained and his arm was already around her waist as he swivelled the chair and pulled her against him. She wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and lay her cheek on top of his head. "You are mighty."

"Am I?" he asked with his face buried in her chest. "Am I? Because it wasn't really me, right? I have most of the memories, but I didn't..." She was shushing him and brushing his hair with her fingers.

"You would have. You would have done every single thing he did! You are both mighty." She ran her fingers through his hair for several more moments before pulling away to tilt his head back and look down into his face. "You are mighty, and I love you." He felt his face flushing when she said it, he couldn't help it, or the smile which creased his lips. She knew it too, smiling herself as she leaned down to kiss him.

It took several minutes, but they all regained their composure a little, Daniel had to close his eyes for a minute while he let his glasses hang down from his hands as he covered his mouth with his fingers. They moved on to looking at the photos on another flash drive which had obviously come from Cam's phone. A lot of them were work-in-progress pictures of various cars, but there were several which all three of them decided they wanted copies of. Pictures of them spending time together on the illicit trips they took together, away from the scrutiny of the US Government. A lot of pictures of Sam and Daniel together, which was natural considering whose phone it was, there were many of Sam and Cam and plenty of Cam and Daniel, laughing and drinking together. There was one picture Sam and Cam both loved, one of the later ones it seemed as it must have been taken on Daniel's birthday, or the hat he was wearing was a very poor fashion choice. He had a stupid grin on his face and his eyes were screwed shut, likely because on either side of him were Sam and Cam kissing one of his cheeks. They both laughed out loud when they saw it, Daniel covered his eyes in horror.

"I am printing that out and framing it in my lab!" cried Sam. Daniel spluttered and protested.

"I will pay you not to! Please!" he begged her.

"Nuh-uh! You have nothing I want, Dr. Jackson." she retorted and Cam laughed.

"I'm giving a copy to Vala." Cam declared as he leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms. Sam cried out ecstatically. Daniel would have banged his head on the table if he wasn't so used to getting his arm underneath him to protect his glasses. It seemed evident these photos where the contents of the 16Gb micro-SD card, it was barely three-quarters full even with the few video files which Cam thought wise to save for another time. They switched to the third flash drive which was mostly video files, nearly twenty-eight gigabytes of it, with much of the remaining capacity of the 32Gb drive being more photos. It seemed the alternate Sam shot a lot of short videos, like some sort of diary. They queued one up and it began with a shot of her kitchen which quickly panned to the window and the rain outside.

"Cameron, they're not kidding when they say it rains a lot in the Pacific Northwest." Sam's voice was filled with amusement. "Also, being in a volcanically active region gives us things like this every once in a while, look." She moved to the window and focused on a stone bird bath sitting atop a pedestal on the grass close by her French doors. The water inside the bird bath was turbid, a slightly greyish-white. "This is caused by suspended ash in the air, but doesn't it remind you a bit of that cavern hot spring on Urdijina?" Sam looked at Cam who smiled up at her at the mention of the planet in the Pegasus galaxy. He nodded his agreement. "I loved that place. I wish we could go back again." Sam laughed out loud and gave Cam a knowing look. "Just wanted you to see this, sweetie, love you, talk to you later." The video cut off right after the view switched to show Sam blowing a kiss into the camera. Sam was blushing and holding her cheeks.

"Yeah, I don't know if I can watch another one of those." Daniel teased them, taking out the flash drive. "We'll sort out photos later. I want to get started listening to some of these notes I made." He smiled at them. "I have no idea how long it will take." Cam laughed.

"We know just how loquacious you are, Jackson, and how quickly you talk when you're excited." he joked and frowned when the other two looked at him strangely. "What?"

"Loquacious?" Daniel asked.

"I know big words." Cam retorted with a smile.

"So I see." replied Daniel with a raised eyebrow.

"Desist in your attempts to provoke me Dr. Jackson, lest I be forced to demonstrate my physical superiority over you." Cam murmured dangerously and Sam laughed. "Damn, I sounded like Teal'c just then. No wonder the Big Guy's so intimidating."

"Yes, his excellent grammar and vocabulary are a huge part of the fear he strikes into his foes." Daniel smiled only half-joking. "I'm hoping that listening to these might spur me to remember more of that timeline." He frowned slightly and looked at them questioningly. "Have you recovered any of those memories while awake? I haven't, they've all been from dreams." Cam and Sam both shook their heads.

"Just while asleep." Cam confirmed.

"I can't imagine what sort of pain you go through, Cameron, assimilating forty odd years of those memories." Daniel said softly, thinking of how they would sometimes awaken in pain when recovering the memories from the alternate timeline.

"I don't. Not the ones from after he went through the Stargate." Cam replied. Daniel looked surprised. Sam nodded, knowing from the experience of sleeping next to him night after night.

"Probably because he's in this timeline after that, in the same continuum, so to speak." she offered and Daniel shrugged slightly.

"Well I'm glad of that. I wouldn't wish forty years worth of that on anyone." he murmured. "Anyways. I remember doing some research on various things, I'm interested in finding out what else I was studying." He picked up the flash drive with his audio notes. "quite a lot, if this is anything to go by."

"I'm sure it will be riveting stuff, Jackson." Cam slapped him on the back as he got up and walked around him. Sam rubbed Daniel's arm rather more sedately before leaving along with Cameron.

"Let us know what you find, okay?" she threw back over her shoulder as Daniel waved them off.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**Voices from a Lost Time – Chapter 5**

Derelict ship, above P1X-011, July 2006

They walked slowly through the corridors of the ship, the lighting flickering intermittently in some sections, dimming and surging in others, completely disabled in a few, such as along their present route. Cam shone the flash light of his P90 from side to side ahead of them while Sam kept hers trained on the ground in front of their feet to keep from stumbling in any of the strewn debris. Teal'c, Vala and Daniel were heading towards the bridge while Cam was taking Sam to find engineering. None of them had ever seen a ship like this. It had something similar to a ring transporter which they'd used to board it from some strange looking temple on the planet's surface, but the rest of the design was completely unfamiliar. All through the ship, a material that looked and felt like stone lined the walls, and it was all slick, as if it exuded moisture constantly. It was in orbit over the planet, they'd managed to find an exterior viewport to confirm that, and the ship obviously still had power, but it seemed completely abandoned.

"Cam, the people on the planet below have been using this ship for their rite of passage for generations. How long do you think it's been here?" she breathed the question while running a hand along a wall, feeling the slightly rough texture with raised ridges and recesses, like slate.

"Sam, part of my brain is thinking 'face-huggers around the next corner', another part is thinking 'a floating ball of condensed evil is gonna make us crazy', and another is thinking 'this is so _cool!_' I'm not the best person to ask for rational hypotheses right now." he muttered while he stopped and shone his light through the open door of a room on Sam's side of the corridor. She hid her smile by sticking her head inside to have a look around. Unfortunately it would probably have been better to stand her ground and just smirk at him because a sudden groan of metal with an accompanying lurch from the derelict sent her stumbling into the room while all the lights in the section blinked and flickered into life. The door slid shut and a metal arm spun around and slammed into place while lights on a panel by the door flickered and changed from blue to a rather ugly orange. She dashed for the doorway when she recovered her balance to see Cam through a large round window in the door, moving his lips, she could hear nothing and indicated as much. She grabbed the arm and tried to lift it, but it wouldn't budge. She shifted her attentions to the panel and the lights and spotted several buttons and pressed the one that was next to the blue light which had winked out. Nothing happened. She pressed the one next to the ugly orange light to a similar effect. Her radio crackled and Cam's voice came over it. "Sam, you okay? I can't get the door open."

"I'm fine, there's a panel on this side, but I don't think it's working." she said into her radio. She ran her fingers over the wall the panel was in, it seemed to be completely sealed in the wall, with no way for her to open it. She gritted her teeth in frustration, breathing in rapidly.

"Sam, there's a panel and a display on this side and there's a bar moving across the screen." he said with a hint of urgency in his voice. Her eyes widened.

"Mitchell? What's going on? Are you guys alright?" Daniel's voice cut in on the comms.

"Jackson, did you guys do anything? The whole ship lurched and Sam's stuck in a room that I'm starting to think is an airlock." He slammed his shoulder into the door and she could see him straining for several moments with something, there was probably another metal arm on his side.

"No, we were just walking down a corridor, when we were all thrown into the bulkhead." Daniel replied and she could hear the sound of booted feet running over his comm.

"Get your asses over here and help me! Or find the damn bridge!" Cam cried into his radio. "Sam, can you open the panel on your side?" She shook her head and he cursed she stuck her head against the glass and saw him fumbling in his tac vest until he produced a swiss army knife. "I'm gonna open the panel on this side, you gotta take me through what I need to do." he declared. She blinked, feeling fuzzy. Cam looked up at her through the glass and his eyes grew concerned. He opened his mouth yelling something. His mouth, sometimes she'd just stare at his mouth, his lips. The way he smiled made her feel weak, especially when he smiled only for her. There was a smile, just one that she'd never seen him smile for anyone else. Her forehead bumped against the glass and she felt thumps through it, she pulled back to see him banging on the door and the glass and yelling, his eyes were wild. Oh, his eyes were even better than his mouth. She could stare at his eyes all day. She lifted her hand up to the glass, laying it flat on the surface, she met his gaze, feeling dizzy. Her knees were shaking. He put his hand over hers on the glass, but his eyes were angry, she shook her head, she liked to see him smiling. How could she make him smile? Tell him how she feels? Yeah, that will do it.

"Cameron," she breathed into the thin atmosphere with a slight smile, "I love you so much." Her knees gave way just as her eyelids fell heavily over her eyes.

* * *

Derelict ship, above P1X-011, July 2006

He stared as she smiled slightly through the glass at him and her lips moved as she spoke, then she collapsed after her eyes fluttered closed. He banged on the door.

"SAM!" He grabbed the arm and yanked at it with all his might, but it wouldn't move. He cursed and moved to the panel, ripping the fascia off with his bare hands and prying a backing plate up with his swiss army knife. He really needed her help with this. He knew his way around electronics for the most part, but he was out of his depth with alien doohickeys. He pulled the backing plate away and flung it down the corridor, revealing a nest of wires and boards and machinery, the purpose of which he didn't even want to hazard a guess. He frantically pulled out as much as he could without disconnecting anything so he could get a look at it all, the boards revealed nothing and the wire connections ran everywhere, there were over a dozen wires. What the Hell? He rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand, dislodging his patrol cap and setting it askew. She was dying in there and he was staring at the insides of an alien airlock control panel. He laughed hysterically before punching the wall next to the panel several times. Focus, damn it! Get it together, Mitchell! He pulled the wires apart one by one to try to visualise the connections between the boards, yellow wire, red wire, blue wire, green wire, ugly orange wire, black wire... he stopped.

His mind flew back to the control room at the SGC, staring at an open wormhole as the alternate SG-1, which had attempted to steal the ZPM from Atlantis to power their Ancient weapons platform, trudged away through the Stargate back to their reality. Their Carter gave their Mitchell a look and he stopped and turned to face them before going through. Cam blinked, staring at the control panel wiring in his hands. He ground his teeth and screwed his eyes shut.

"Oh, you better not be from the mirror universe, you son of a bitch!" he muttered and lifted out the green wire out from among the rest with his knife, then yanked the knife back, severing the wire. Nothing happened for an instant and he blinked in horror until he heard a deep metallic clunk from the door and he dropped everything. He wrapped his hands around the metal arm and pulled with all his strength, feeling it resist until it gave way and lifted, spinning out of his grip, pushing the door open slightly to the sound of rushing air entering the room beyond through the gap. He pulled at the door, wedging his foot against the door frame for leverage and opened it enough for him to get his body in and force the door open further. He rushed to Sam and grabbed the collar of her tac vest, lifting her up. "Sam? Baby, please don't do this to me." there was no response and he pulled and turned her and dragged her through the doorway into the corridor as Teal'c, Daniel and Vala arrived.

"Colonel Mitchell, what can we do?" asked the Jaffa with an edge to his voice. Daniel and Vala both cursed when they saw Sam, her lips blue from hypoxia, the lock hadn't completely depressurised or she'd be in far worse shape.

"Teal'c," Cam rasped as he positioned her in the corridor and lay her head back gently, "close that door, the atmosphere is still venting." The Jaffa looked at the open door and began pulling at it, Daniel moved in to help, until they had the door shut, Teal'c pulled the arm over with his great strength, securing it. As they did that Cam was feeling for a pulse on Sam's neck, finding something very faint and thready, he unzipped her tac vest and put his ear to her chest, hearing a faint beat. He moved his ear to over her mouth, but felt nothing, so he lifted her neck and tilted her head back to begin resuscitation. He pressed his lips to hers and blew air into her lungs twice before shifting to chest compressions for a count of thirty. He did it again and again, shrugging off Vala's hand on his shoulder until he felt Sam convulse under him and gasp, arching her back and throwing up her arms. Cam grabbed the front of her BDUs and pulled her up, as she hacked and coughed and took in great lungfuls of air just to cough harder. He wrapped his arms around her getting a leg under her to support her as she laid her head on his shoulder and gasped. "I've got you, Sam. I've got you."

* * *

Urdijina, M3R-921, December 2007

Sam looked nervously towards the rock wall which separated the alcove in which she stood from the area beyond. How did she get herself into this? Cameron always managed to turn her world upside down whenever he showed up. As if that was his mission in life. She unzipped the jacket of her jumpsuit and slipped out of it, arranging it in the area which seemed to be specially set up for it along the wall. She grimaced in frustration as her heart beat a little faster, imagining what was happening on the other side of that rock wall and shook her head. She would kill him. She really would. Somehow this was all his fault. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and sighed. Of course it wasn't. The same would have happened if it had been John who came with her. Except it would be him on the other side of that wall. Maybe that wouldn't be as bad as it being Cam. She ran her hand through her hair. Cam always seemed to flummox her attempts to keep things normal. It was a pain in the ass. She undid her belt and the clasps of her trousers, slipping them off and hanging them up over her discarded boots. Taking off her shirt and underwear and storing them, she stepped around the protective wall inside the alcove which guarded the disrobing area from the spray and sluices of the cataract flowing from a jagged fissure in the rock over head.

The water was warm and smelled of rich loamy soil. She let it run over her face as she closed her eyes, then through her hair as it draped over her shoulders and down her back. She passed her hands along her arms and over the skin of her chest, stomach and legs. Just as the Aleri admonished her to do as they guided them to the Caverns. This was as much a ritual as everything else with the Urdijine. They weren't strict about it, and in fact seemed to enjoy teaching others of their ways more than watching them attempt to replicate them. However, one thing she'd learned from Dr. Elizabeth Weir during her short tenure as the head of Stargate Command was that everyone appreciated effort expended in good will. She intended to follow the example of her predecessor as much as possible to the best of her ability. She had to admit the water felt very pleasant. Warm, but not hot, as it flowed smoothly over her head, running down her back and legs, she rubbed her face gently and cupped her hand to take a swallow of the water, which was the last step of this part of the ritual. It tasted like earth, but she'd had worse. Smiling she stepped out from under the cataract and around another protective wall, behind which hung a long white robe similar to those worn by the Aleri. She quickly found the ties she'd been shown earlier and looped the robe around her shoulder, slipping her arms through the folds made for them, tying it at her neck and looping the cords around her waist and under her breasts. She blushed deeply when she looked down at herself. God she hated Cameron sometimes. She pulled her hair from the collar of the robe and let it drape down her shoulders before stepping out into the main cavern. She spotted outcroppings of rock which ran past a line of lit torches on stands and into the turbid water of a large underground lake. Steam rose gently from the surface in wisps and hung for a moment in the stillness above the milky water before evaporating away. She stopped and gasped lightly at the sight. Entranced by the unnerving beauty of it all. She heard the sound of water lapping and turned her head to look, seeing Cameron already in the water, leaning back against the lip of rock holding in the warm lake and glancing over his shoulder at her. The look in his eyes held her entranced for a moment until she realised why it was there, he was watching her.

"Eyes front, Mitchell!" Sam cried and he grinned and turned his head forward again. She glanced down and noticed her robe clinging to her still wet form like a second skin. She blushed furiously and strode towards the edge of the pool, past the torches. "Don't you dare say anything!" She stepped in beside him and quickly submerged herself, glaring at Cameron when he turned to look at her. She cupped her hands in front of her and let the water she captured and lifted out flow through her hands while she watched the sediment slip through her fingers. She sighed deeply. The water felt amazing. Blinking in surprise she looked over at Cam. "You've been to places like this before?" He looked over to her and shrugged a shoulder with a tilt of his head.

"Not like this, but I've been to a few hot springs. The Japanese love 'em. You figure out why _pretty_ quickly." He smiled warmly and she returned it, sliding over to sit by him, stretching her legs out along the warm rock underneath her. "This is fairly spectacular actually." He ran a hand through the water, ripples spreading away into the darkness beyond the reach of the torches lit behind them. "There are many onsen with cloudy water of some variety, but this smells... almost florid, you know?" He was right. There was a distinctly flowery scent. "I'd have expected an onsen in a cave to smell more earthy, at best." She nodded in understanding then frowned when she caught the sparkle in his eye, he twisted around to reach behind his left shoulder and she looked at him in curiosity, he turned back and held a small box to her. Flat and square and made of soft, purple-shaded leather. "Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday, Sam." he said softly and she smiled happily, taking the box from him, careful to keep it mostly dry.

"Thank you, Cameron." She opened the box to see a pair of silver hair clips, engraved with a subtle filigree which formed the stems of flowered vines and curling around them a bracelet, also made of silver, sharing the same motifs. They made her smile broadly and she didn't know why. They seemed familiar somehow, but she was certain she'd never seen anything like them. "They're beautiful, Cam. Thank you!" She leaned over and kissed his cheek gently, noticing how he smiled and the way his eyes glittered when she did so. She reached over her right shoulder and took her time laying the box somewhere dry, giving herself time to cool down the heat in her cheeks which she wasn't sure was caused by the water.

"I'm glad you like them." He looked down into the cloudy pool ahead of him and nodded. They were quiet for several minutes, enjoying the warmth of the water reaching down deep into their bones. Sam found her head tilting to the side and resting on Cam's shoulder and just smiled when she felt him lay his atop hers. She never imagined her birthday would be like this, and was now distinctly glad Cam was here.

"This has been a good day, a good birthday. Thank you, Cam." she breathed into the stillness and he lifted a hand out of the water and pressed a finger to her nose for a second. She grinned.

"You work too hard, Sam. You know you do. I'm just glad when I can lift some of your burdens." he said softly. She closed her eyes and nodded against his shoulder. After several more quiet, comfortable minutes, she felt him shift, raising his head from hers and turning slightly towards her. She lifted her head and looked up at him, and was stunned into stillness by the look in his eyes. For several moments she just stared into the intent gaze he pierced her with, unable to breathe, his lips were drawn tight and his brow furrowed while his blue eyes burned through her. The spell was only broken when he closed his eyes and the tension in his shoulders slipped away into the milky water. "We should get out soon. It's not good to be in the water for too long and your cheeks look to be getting a bit flushed. He stood, the water running down his soaked robes which hung straight down from his shoulders and over his toned chest. He held his hand out and she reached up to take it, letting him help her up out of the water. She held on to his hand after getting to her feet and found her other hand gripping his arm, she leaned against him for a few seconds as she felt suddenly light-headed. His arm slid down to hold her lower back and her forehead fell against his chest as she breathed in the scent of the water on his robes, which only added to his own scent without masking it. "See, you're a bit dizzy." She nodded and closed her eyes for a moment, unsure what was happening. Suddenly a bright flash against her closed eyelids had her grimacing. "What the-!" She glanced up at Cam's exclamation and looked around, surprised to see a floating wall of glittering glyphs in front of them over the water.

* * *

USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 2,314 days relative

"Sit still and don't move, Cameron!" admonished Vala as she slapped the top of his head. She adjusted the markers and points around his face, making sure they were aligned with the tracks the high resolution scanner would use as it recorded his features while he displayed various emotions for Vala's use in her film. "You don't want Commander Cain Lockhammer to look wonko, do you?"

"Have I mentioned yet that that's a ridiculous name?" he jibed and she flicked his forehead.

"Have I mentioned yet that I don't care?" she grinned and pinched his cheeks for good measure.

"Hey! Don't abuse the volunteer just 'cause he's stuck in this contraption of yours." he groused, glaring at her.

"Ooh, that's good! Let me switch on the recorder and then do it again." She tapped various keys on her keyboard. That was easy for him. He glared at her some more. "Brilliant! More of that please." He chuckled in spite of himself and smiled.

"You know I can't believe you've managed to learn all this stuff and figured out how to put it all together to make a film." his mouth movements were also important to capture so she seemed happy to let him talk, letting him go with just a glare. "I'm proud of you, Vala, you've taken this situation we're in and you've run with it." She smiled softly and reached over to ruffle his hair. "You did better than I did at the beginning too." Her look turned slightly sad. "I'll be honest and tell you I thought you'd be the first one of us to snap, but you rolled with the punches and came out stronger." He glanced down with a look of pain and distress. "I'm not proud of how I dealt with it." He was surprised when Vala reached out and tilted his chin up with her fingers.

"Cameron, don't you dare. Do you hear me? Don't you _dare_." She tilted her head to the side and smiled slightly. "This is an impossible situation. In _every_ sense of the word. You tore yourself apart trying to hold on to something very important to you. Your _only_ mistake was thinking that thing was more important than what you were denying." He blinked and tried to look down, but Vala pulled his head back up. "Do you understand?" He nodded slowly. "Good." She stroked his cheek with her thumb. "You're far too good a man to deny yourself something so simple and so right. You were an idiot for doing it for so long. And so was Samantha." At the mention of her name Cam's mind drifted to thoughts of her and a small smile flitted across his face. "Okay, I can't use that." He blinked in surprise.

"Can't use what? Why?" he asked, looking at the monitor at a replay of the smile which drifted across his lips.

"Because only Samantha should ever see that smile." she said with an indulgent smirk.

* * *

P4S-891, August 2010

"Dix owes us big time for this." Cameron stamped his feet at the mouth of the small cave they were using to shield their equipment from the torrential downpour that fell into the ravine below, where stood the Stargate for the planet SG-1 had been assigned to stake out. Teal'c was in orbit in a cloaked Tel'tak as he surveilled the typical hyperspace entry points into the system. Daniel and Vala were stationed in the small village, beyond the ravine at the edge of the local peat bogs, posing as off-world traders interested in the high quality soil, just in case the Lucian Alliance went off-script and decided to leave the immediate vicinity of the 'gate for any reason. Sam and Cam had pulled the actual surveillance detail on the Stargate and spent the previous day setting up a small array of cameras on the 'gate and around the clearing and making sure to conceal them as well as possible. They'd found this small cave during their reconnaissance of the Stargate clearing and decided to use it to keep their equipment out of the elements. It also provided excellent cover from the ravine below for visual surveillance. Setting up a small blind to mimic the surrounding rocks beyond the entrance was simple enough. It wasn't a water-proof blind however, much to Cameron's discomfort. "Begged to trade with us 'cause he doesn't like boggy areas, but I think he meant he doesn't like rainy areas." Cam was not happy.

"Cam, he traded for jungle terrain. Which means he must _really_ hate bogs and rain." Sam muttered as Cam came to stand over her and scrutinised the camera feeds. "Don't get the computers wet!" She pointed away from her and he huffed, shambling off a little further away. "Anyway, I thought you liked the rain."

"I like warm, tropical rain, not cold, temperate rain." he groused and sat down by their packs against the far wall. Sam got up and came to sit next to him. He smiled at her and thanked the universe again for letting him be with a woman who could accept him and stand to be near him even when he was soaking wet in a dank cave. "Anything I need to check on at the last minute? We don't have a lot of time according to the rendezvous schedule." Sam shook her head. They were ready, should they be called upon. Masim used a number of planets to conduct these clandestine meetings with his third-party connections. All of them out of the way, hardly trafficked, utterly unremarkable. He met with his contacts at least once every month or so, the planet chosen was usually random, at least from the perspective of someone not involved in the choice such as Uliria Heidal. She could only provide them with a schedule of the meetings and a list of the planets she'd seen them take place on. She'd been to several of the meetings herself, as she was Kiva's preferred engineer and technician and was frequently crewing her ships whether she took a Tel'tak or an Al'kesh. However she had no experience with Ancient systems and was not slated to go to Destiny, they had acquired the services of some others who had a little knowledge of Alteran technology instead. Cam supposed it was poetic justice that Uliria was about to get a crash course on Alteran technology under Rodney McKay on Atlantis. As it was the SGC had six teams conducting similar surveillance all over the galaxy right at that moment. One in six wasn't great odds. Especially since they couldn't afford not to cover all the possible planets.

"Just waiting on word from Teal'c now, he'll get first sighting of any Lucian Alliance ships." Sam took off her patrol cap and stuffed it in her jacket, running a hand through her sandy brown hair. She turned her head to glance at Cam for just an instant before looking back to the computers. She had that nervous look which usually set him off. Not because it was something dangerous or vitally important, but because it was something she was worrying about which she really didn't need to be worrying about.

"What's on your mind, Sam?" he asked softly and she looked at him with a slight blush before looking down again. He reached up and ran a finger against her cheek and under her chin, lifting it so she would look at him.

"It's _really_ nothing, just something stupid." she whispered and he lifted an eyebrow. "Well I'm... thinking of... well, for when we get married..." She clenched her jaw and chuckled ruefully. "It really is something stupid."

"You just want my opinion on something, right? Something simple? And you're feeling a bit weird bringing it up during a mission, am I right?" he asked and she nodded to each question. He smiled. "We have time, that's the thing about our work and our lives." he murmured, stroking her cheek. "They are so enmeshed in each other that it can be difficult separating the personal from the professional sometimes. Hell, it's virtually impossible. It's why you work at least twelve hours a day. We're the sort of people who have trouble switching off." She looked down and sighed sadly. He knew this was something of a sore point for her. She loved her work. To her it wasn't a question of switching on or off. Her work is what she'd enjoy doing on her time off as well. It _was_ what she did on her time off before Cam came to the SGC and made sure she spent a greater portion of her off hours _outside_ of her lab than she had previously. "That's not a bad thing, as long as you and I both agree, that when the need to do something personal, something private, something for us, when the need comes up we make the time for it." She looked up and smiled softly, her blue eyes shining. "So we have time, sweetness. What do you want to ask?"

"You're scary sometimes. How well you know me." She lifted her hand and took a hold of his against her cheek. "It's like you can see things the way I see them without even trying." He tilted his head to the side. "I've seen you do something similar with others sometimes, little moments when you just know exactly what someone wants or needs." He frowned slightly in confusion. "That's a gift, Cameron." She turned her head slightly to kiss his fingers, then looked at him once more, slightly embarrassed. "What I wanted to ask, was what you would think if I dyed my hair blond again." She looked away while holding his fingers to her lips, but her gaze flicked over to watch him from the corner of her eye and back. He grinned broadly and slowly. He reached towards her with his other hand, taking the lock of hair which would slip from behind her ear to rest against her cheek most of the time and let it run through his fingers. To see it shining in gold once more, yes he'd like that very much. He leaned in close to her ear.

"I loved that sandy blond shade you switched to before you left for Atlantis." He whispered softly and he felt her shiver slightly when he leaned in a little closer still. "It did things for me which were highly unprofessional." When he pulled back he saw her smiling from behind his fingers as she held them still over her mouth, and the decidedly dusky shade of rose to which her cheeks were flushed. Her eyes flicked over to his once more and they were glittering. He smiled.

"Cam..." she breathed against his fingertips, but her thoughts were stolen away by the warning buzz of an incoming scrambled burst transmission. She frowned then sighed and he groaned. He pursed her lips between his fingers and she spluttered and scowled at him before getting up to play Teal'c's message.

"Colonel Mitchell, Samantha Carter, I have detected vessels emerging from hyperspace. It is likely they are our quarry. I will now maintain radio silence and monitor the situation from orbit. Teal'c out." Sam glanced at Cam and he nodded, getting up to slip into the blind outside. Sam began gathering up the small relay they would be using inside the blind and stuffed it into a sealable plastic bag which would help keep it dry. A low tech solution for a high tech problem. Cam's favourite. She grabbed the small ear pieces which would let them hear the audio and had a very short range to keep it from being detected. She slipped into the blind alongside him where they lay flat on an overhang with some optical equipment to surveil the Stargate clearing visually. She handed the ear bug to him and he slipped it into the ear on the other side from her, to make sure he could hear anything she said. She keyed the little relay monitor inside its plastic bag to link into the feeds from her equipment in the cave behind them. They saw the Tel'tak flying in from the east and landing lightly in the center of the clearing. Personnel exited and soon had the clearing secure, allowing a second Tel'tak to come in to land, presumably with Masim inside. An hour later the Stargate activated, but before they could see who came through from their position behind the event horizon, they saw a field of some kind expanding from just in front of the Stargate. It climbed over the Stargate to encompass it, the steps to the 'gate and a large portion of the clearing. It had the effect of distorting their optical surveillance and also of interrupting the transmission feeds from the cameras within the field. They had no video whatsoever. Cam turned his head to look at Sam questioningly and she looked back apologetically.

"Sorry, Cam," she whispered, "whatever that field is it's interfering with the frequencies our cameras are transmitting to our equipment on. The back-up recorders embedded in the devices will still work though. We'll just have to wait." He grumbled and gritted his teeth. "We still have audio, though." He whipped his head around and she smiled broadly, as she closed the lid of the relay inside its plastic bag, not needing its monitor anymore. "Different frequencies." she explained. Cam smiled as well and made sure his ear bug was working. Looking through the eyepiece of the scope ahead of him he saw Masim coming out of his Tel'tak and moving into the field.

"Damn thing is probably there just to keep them dry." Cam muttered, but fell silent when the two parties began greeting each other. They used no names, instead relying on euphemisms and double-talk, except that it obviously seemed to make sense in context to the two men. They also came to agreement on various things the nature of which was indecipherable to Cameron. They avoided speaking of anything in specifics until it was getting obvious the other man was preparing to leave.

"I am aware of our failure in the operation. I assure you we do not hold you or your men at fault, the telemetry indicates they accomplished their assigned tasks faultlessly and for that you have our admiration." Quite the concession. "It would seem the failure was ours. We underestimated the resourcefulness of our foes. Strategically, we were lacking."

"Do you intend on a second attack?" asked Masim.

"Our plans, and beyond that our pride, requires it." replied the stranger. "When the time comes we will seek your assistance once more, should you be willing to provide it."

"Of course, but I do not understand, why do you hold such enmity towards them, have you had contact with the Tau'ri in the past?" Masim speaking the name which identified the humans of Earth out among the stars had Cameron looking hard at Sam. "What could they have done which would require such an end for their homeworld?" Alarm bells went off in his head and he saw Sam's eyes widen in surprise and anger.

"We owe the Tau'ri a debt. A world for a world."


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am just playing in the world

**Voices from a Lost Time ****–**** Chapter 6**

Herian's moon, P6C-211, October 2008

Something was wrong. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled, something was missing. She whipped her head around and realised it was Cam, who was nowhere in sight behind her.

"Cam?" she cried in dismay. He was right behind her! Where did he go? She stared through the arch and down the tunnel seeing it completely empty and stopped in her tracks. "CAMERON!" She ran back towards the arch, to be joined quickly by the others when she slammed face-first into thin air and fell onto her back. Teal'c helped her up on to her feet and she reached out only to find her fingers pressing against something springy that wasn't there. She slammed her fist into it. "CAMERON!" Jonas pressed his hand against whatever was there in a similar fashion. It didn't feel like a forcefield. There was no flash of light where her hand interacted with the field, just... a solid emptiness. She ripped her pack off her back and reached in to grab one of her scanning devices, quickly switching it on and scanning for readings. There was something there alright but she couldn't tell what.

"They must have activated the device." Daniel breathed from behind her and she looked up in horror. She ground her teeth and handed the device to Kianna, who was standing next to her, and reached into her pack for her laptop and several connecting leads. She barely noticed the crack in the lid from where she'd landed on it when she fell. She just knew it turned on and she was typing away furiously before anyone could ask her what she was doing. She took the scanner from a baffled Kianna and connected several leads to it and handed it back. The stunned woman just took it and looked at it. Sam waved her forward and she shook her head slightly, holding out the scanner at arms length. Sam started recording readings and telemetry and then reached into her pack for something she couldn't find. She cursed loudly. "Sam, what are you doing?"

"Jonas! Give me your pack!" she called, ignoring Daniel's question. Jonas walked over looking concerned and shrugged his pack off his shoulders, laying it by her side. She dug into it.

"Sam, we can't stay here. We're too exposed." Daniel tried again but Teal'c put a hand on his arm.

"I do not believe we are in any danger now, Daniel Jackson." the Jaffa explained. "Whatever is keeping us out of this structure is also keeping them inside, or Colonel Mitchell would not be trapped." Sam whimpered involuntarily when he spoke the word and Vala knelt down by her side putting a hand on her arm.

"What do you need, Samantha?" she asked softly. Sam paused and looked up at the former thief, before giving a shuddering sigh and rubbing the back of her hand against her forehead.

"Um. I need to get readings of this field, but I can't use you for that," she looked around, "the enclosure... we need more information about it." Vala looked up at Kianna who nodded and passed the scanner to Jonas.

"Muscles, go with Kianna in that direction. Daniel and I will go the other way." Teal'c nodded and bowed slightly to the Kelownan woman for her to proceed ahead of him. Daniel gave Sam a last look of concern and glared at Jonas, who nodded solemnly, before following behind Vala. Sam finally found what she needed in Jonas' pack and produced a tripod stand and a small case from which she extracted a frequency modulator. She quickly set it up and had it running through various feedback scans in short order. She helped Jonas set up a stand for the scanner as well so he wouldn't have to hold it. With all that done she could no longer mask the emotions on her face behind her determination to work. She brought her hand up to cover her eyes and shuddered. Jonas put a hand on her shoulder and she flinched before she realised who it was.

"We're going to have to go back to the SGC for you to work out a solution, you know that, right?" he asked gently and she nodded, her hand shaking against her lips. "You will figure it out, Sam. We'll get Colonel Mitchell back."

"This is some sort of time dilation field, Jonas, and it's faster on the inside. Who knows how much time has already passed in there?" she cried desperately.

"Which is why you have to stay calm, so you can think clearly." He turned her to face him. "When Mitchell came to help us on Langara, practically the only thing he could think about from one minute to the next was that you were going to be back in two weeks." She laughed, rubbing her hand against cheeks getting slightly moist. "He mentioned it constantly. 'Sam's back in two weeks.' 'Two weeks, have I mentioned that?'" She laughed again and nodded, easily able to imagine what Jonas was describing. "He could still focus on the mission though. We captured Ba'al and he single-handedly recovered a crate full of weapon's grade naquadria. Then it was back to the whole 'Sam's back from Atlantis in two weeks, can't wait.'" He smiled as she nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks. "You can do this, Sam." He hugged her and she accepted it, pulling away soon after to turn back to her laptop, rubbing her cheeks dry with the heel of her hand as she checked over her readings and ran more tests. An hour later the other four members of the team returned, having scouted far enough along each wall to be able to say they were circular or at least curved in on themselves, likely meeting at another gate house similar to this one. Teal'c mentioned that the field extended above the wall and demonstrated by picking up a rock and throwing it high into the air and over the tall stone wall, only for it to bounce and roll off nothing and back outside the boundary. It seemed the Ha'tak was likely trapped inside as well.

"Teal'c, I need you to stay here and monitor the field until we come back, in case they shut it off and try to leave." Sam ordered and Teal'c nodded. "Guys, give him half the rest of your rations, we're double timing back to the Stargate and dialling home with the readings I've taken so far, Jonas and Kianna will stay at the 'gate after we go through to brief General Landry." They all nodded and began digging into their packs. "We'll get an SG team back here as soon as possible." Teal'c nodded once more in understanding. She showed him how to monitor the field on the laptop then copied off the data onto a flash stick. They left their packs and hoofed it back to the Stargate as quickly as they could, pausing for breaks every once in a while. There was a lot of daylight still left by the time they arrived at the clearing and dialled the 'gate and walked through. They informed the General about the situation and requested a relief team for Teal'c, Jonas and Kianna. They then prepared for a more thorough debrief of General Landry. As they walked into the briefing room Sam couldn't help but stop and watch SG-16 and SG-18 stepping through the 'gate to join Teal'c, Jonas and Kianna, the Kelownans would return in a little while after being relieved. After Landry was up to speed, he gave a conditional go order on a rescue op, contingent on them finding a way through the field. Sam rushed to her lab to get to work.

She'd never seen a field like it. All the other time dilation fields she'd ever seen did not prevent things from breaching their boundaries. Something else was combining with the field to accomplish this, but it wasn't a regular force field. She broke down all the readings into frequency spreads, checking and double checking and eventually triple checking. She couldn't identify anything which might explain it. She felt a hand on her shoulder and found Vala holding a mug of coffee out to her and she smiled, taking it gratefully, giving her friend's hand a squeeze. She yawned and took a sip, then closed her tired eyes a moment and sighed.

"I think you need to go to sleep soon, Samantha, you can't help him if you're too tired to think." Vala gently hugged her from behind and lay her chin on Sam's shoulder.

"I know you're right, Vala, but I can't... I just can't... there's no time to waste." Sam turned to face Vala who stood up straight with her hands on Sam's shoulders. "Every second out here could literally be minutes or hours for Cam..." she choked up, holding her hand over her mouth, forcing her eyes closed. Vala took the mug from her hands and placed it on the table, then put her arms around Sam who buried her face against the other woman.

"You'll figure it out." Vala intoned gently. "I have no doubt. And you know what's most important?" Sam pulled away looking up at her friend. "Neither does he." She nodded at Vala's confident smile, but didn't allow any tears to come down. She simply turned to face her computer again and began working once more. "He never gave up on you when you were out of phase. He's crazy stupid like that." Vala rubbed her shoulder for a moment before walking away towards the door of the lab. She stopped when Sam called her back.

"What was that you just said?" Sam was blinking furiously trying to focus her mind, Vala looked at her in confusion and concern for a moment before answering.

"He never gave up on you when you were out of phase because he's the most optimistic idiot I've ever met." she paraphrased. Sam drew in a long slow breath as her eyebrows climbed up her forehead in understanding.

"Vala, get me a Sodan cloaking device, quick!" she ordered and began typing away furiously, checking the data and rechecking it, then writing several hundred lines of code for a test harness she was going to use to conduct frequency tests on one of the cloaking devices she would soon be modifying. If she was right, this was her way in. Several hours later she was watching a volunteer activate the cloaking device and fade out of sight, but only mostly out of sight. There was now a shimmering outline still visible to the naked eye. She began running the telemetry scans and fired off several frequency tests which all gave back the results she'd been hoping to see. She ran out of the observation room and into the isolation lab itself, grabbing the cloaking device from the airman as he switched it off and running back out the room with a 'thank you' thrown over her shoulder. She arranged for a briefing with General Landry and gathered everyone except for Teal'c, who was still off world, having refused the SG teams' offer of full relief and had instead insisted on staying.

"What do you have for me, Carter?" Landry asked as he hurried into the room, waving her at ease as soon as he walked in. She brought up some figures on the monitor in the briefing room and began.

"The field is a combined spectrum field, it has a time dilation component, a dimensional displacement component," she smiled at everyone's shocked face, "and for good measure adds a protective barrier as well." She picked up the Sodan cloaking device. "I've modified this cloaking device to be able to interact with the barrier allowing it to be breached, while at the same time neutralising the effects of the time dilation until the barrier can be fully passed, otherwise temporal distortion effects would rip apart whoever was trying to pass through." Everyone blanched at her words. "I've also locked into the dimensional signature used by the field and adjusted this device to match it." She smiled triumphantly.

"That device will allow the wearer to enter that field?" Landry asked and she nodded. "How many can you make ready, Colonel?" She sighed, this was going to be the hard part.

"Sir, it took me five hours to modify this device, there is no easy interface to do this and each device is, for all intents and purposes, unique." She shrugged her shoulders. "Colonel Mitchell doesn't have that kind of time, sir." Everyone was shifting in their seat uncomfortably. "I was hoping to wear it myself and go in, return to the time dilation device undetected and disable it, allowing our assault teams to come in." Landry frowned at her, clearly unhappy. "Sir, I'm very familiar with those control pedestals, now that it's active I believe I can deactivate it without too much trouble." She glanced at Daniel who was looking at her with a very tightly controlled gaze. Her eyes flicked to the General and she cursed mentally when she spotted him looking at Daniel too. There was no way he was going to let her go.

"Very well, Colonel, make sure Dr. Lee has your notes on how to modify the devices, I'll get him working on producing more," he looked at her straight in the eye, "in case we need to come rescue you as well." Landry stood and she came to attention, blinking in surprise. "You have a go, SG-1. Bring him back." Daniel waited until Landry left the room before rounding on her.

"Are you crazy, Sam?" he whispered fiercely to Vala's dismay from beside him. "How are you going to deactivate the device when you can't read anything on it? Were you planning on pulling out crystals until it stopped? Hoping against hope it doesn't blow up in your face?" She bit her lip and nodded.

"Pretty much." she replied. He looked at her for several moments, before throwing up his hands.

"Screw it! It's National Crazy Colonel day. Let's go pick up our regular one so we can have the _sane_ Sam back." He turned and stalked out of the room with Vala winking at Sam over her shoulder as she followed him. Jonas and Kianna both nodded at her from their seats around the briefing table.

* * *

Atlantis, July 2010

Sam sat in the sparring room, watching Cam spinning a staff end over end in an intricate dance of precision and power. Each flick of his wrist sent a tip of the staff angling in towards a vital spot on Ronon's athletic frame, a joint, such as the wrist or knee, or an area susceptible to damage such as the solar plexus or head. Each time the staff came in it was met and parried by the Satedan. Sometimes he countered, other times he simply had no time because the parry itself was a necessary component in Cam's next attack. That wasn't to say Cam was winning, truth be told he was probably losing, Ronon had certainly landed more blows than Cam had. The important thing as far as Sam was concerned was that Cam looked amazing to her. He was lithe where the Satedan was brawny, agile where the Satedan was fast, but he had power, and when his blow did land it was devastating. A spin of the staff disguised a low leg sweep which Ronon jumped over, only for the back swing of the staff to catch his wrist as he was in the air, then the other end of the staff caught his ribs, sending him tumbling sideways, stumbling as he landed. He backed up, grinning ferociously, twirling his own weapons in his hands. She only saw that smile on Ronon when he was really enjoying himself.

"Ah, here they are, I knew we'd find them, thank you Atlantis. Dr. Carter." It was Wolsey's voice and she glanced over to the door to see the current leader of Atlantis standing next to Yeva of the Urdijine, Atlantis burbled an acknowledgment as they walked in. Sam smiled and stood, walking over. Yeva immediately stuck out her hand to shake Sam's and she gripped it. The Urdijine observed the customs of their hosts just as assiduously as they enjoyed teaching their guests their own customs.

"Yeva, it is good to see you." She motioned for the woman to come in and sit down. "Come, Ronon and Cam are putting on a bit of a master class for Colonel Sheppard's Marines."

"I can see that, Dr. Carter." Yeva had noticed Sam wasn't being addressed with 'Colonel', but had not enquired as to the reasons. The Hunter's Herta sat beside Sam while Wolsey took the seat on the woman's other side. "Their skill is very impressive. Are such combat trials common among your people?" Sam shook her head.

"No, the vast majority of the people of Earth could not hope to keep up with either of them. Most don't even fight at all. Cameron is a professional warrior like yourself, he fights to defend those who cannot fight themselves." Sam glanced at the woman who was watching the combat with great interest. "As for Ronon, he was also a soldier among his people, but when they were destroyed by the Wraith he chose to keep fighting for the sake of retribution, and to perhaps rid the galaxy of the those who decimated his world."

"They have different reasons, but they strive for the same thing." Yeva returned Sam's gaze. "A concept my people have long since taken to heart." Sam nodded and glanced at Richard beyond the woman.

"The Urdijine way is not to seek a shared origin with others, but to seek a shared destination." She tried to explain what she'd learned from her time with the Urdijine previously.

"Quite so, Dr. Carter. You learned much of us during the time we formulated our original agreement." Yeva turned to Wolsey. "That is why we would like to request that Dr. Carter and Colonel Mitchell be the ones to negotiate its renewal." Sam blinked and looked at the Atlantis administrator. He merely glanced back as if this is exactly what he expected.

"I have no objections myself. If Dr. Carter is willing to lend us her time and expertise and those of Colonel Mitchell I would gladly take advantage of it." Sam looked at Cam who was parrying away several strikes from Ronon's flashing sticks in quick succession.

"Cam?" she called. He didn't break his form.

"Yeah, Sam?" He spun on a heel and twisted his body down to bring his trailing foot flashing up towards Ronon's head, which he ducked easily. That wasn't the attack however.

"Want to go back to Urdijina?" Sam asked idly while Cam's staff connected with Ronon's ankle, barely three inches off the ground, sweeping it away.

"I'd love to." Before he had finished speaking, he was upright and had the staff pointed right at Ronon's throat as the Satedan grinned back.

"Show me that again, Mitchell." Ronon growled and quickly got up. "I want to see what your hands did." Sam smiled at Yeva.

* * *

Andrews AFB, August 2009 (alternate timeline)

Cameron was about to zip up his flightsuit when he remembered to reach for his mobile phone in the pocket of his jacket and stuffed it in an inside pocket, he had already taken his marriage certificate and tucked it away safely. Leaving the locker room behind him, he walked out into the hangar to find Sam and Daniel seated at a table, eating some food before they were to climb into the pair of F-15E Strike Eagles they would fly south to Antarctica. He reached up to ruffle his hair and hesitated. They were heading off on a mission he didn't think was that smart. Getting a ZPM to the Ancient outpost in Antarctica wouldn't be enough, not nearly enough. And he was certain they were going to run out of time. Sam stood up from her seat and walked towards him, she reached out for his hand and he took it, squeezing it and pulling her close.

"Cam, you're worried about something." she stated matter-of-factly. He just nodded. "You think we're not going to make it back in time with the ZPM." He nodded again. "Then I think you'll feel better if you say good-bye to whoever you need to say good-bye to." He blinked and pulled back to look into her face. She smiled and cupped his cheek in her hand. "He's a good kid and he looks up to you." She was right. She was always right. He smiled sadly and leaned down to kiss her, no longer caring who saw them. He reached into his flightsuit and pulled out his phone, but cursed when he saw the battery was dry. Sam glanced at it then reached into her own flightsuit and pulled out her own phone, handing it to him. "I have a lot of important stuff on it, I'm not going to leave it behind." She winked at him and he grinned. Their plan was still on. Sure they'd send back the ZPM, but they wouldn't come back themselves, they had stuff to do and they wouldn't be needed here once they ZPM was sent back.

"Do you want to say good-bye too? He likes you a lot." he murmured as he put in the numbers from memory and held the phone up to his ear.

"Sure, we had a lot of fun the few times we met." she replied smiling, leaning against his chest, her finger surreptitiously running over the ring on its chain under his shirt. He smiled at her as the phone was answered at the other end, it was the kid, luckily.

"Hey slugger, just a second, let me put you on speaker." Cam pressed a button and held the phone in front of him between him and Sam. "Sam's here with me."

"Cam? Sam? What's going on? There's crazy stuff on TV! Aliens! I tried calling you earlier but your phone kept coming back as switched off!" he rambled on semi-coherently.

"Yeah, sorry about that, I'm on Sam's phone. Kid, listen to me," he glanced at Sam and she nodded slightly, "Sam and I have a really important job to do, and it has to do with what you're watching on TV."

"What? What are you talking about Cam? What do you and Sam have to do with that?" he asked incredulously.

"Son, we're actually..." Cam faltered with a grimace and glanced at Sam for help. She leaned towards the phone.

"We're Air Force officers and we have some experience with these sorts of situations. I'm not making fun of you, I swear." She winced slightly and looked at Cam. There was silence on the other end for several moments.

"Okay, I believe you." They blinked in surprise at the reply. "Why are you telling me?"

"Because we might not..." Cam hesitated again but steeled himself. "I'll be honest, kiddo, we won't be coming back, even if we succeed." He watched Sam smile sadly. "Sam, our friend Daniel and I, we have a mission more important than what we've been asked to do already. It means we won't be coming back."

"We're calling to say good-bye." Sam said softly.

"Why won't you come back?" asked a small voice from the phone. Sam closed her eyes and leaned her head against Cam's shoulder.

"Because if we succeed, everything will be different, I'm sorry. Good-bye, son." He hung up after Sam added her own 'good-bye' and one was returned in a very soft voice. Sam wrapped her arms around him and he closed his eyes for a long moment before pulling away. He closed her flip phone and offered it to her again. She pushed his hand away.

"Hold it for me okay? It ruins the line of my flightsuit." she teased with a slight smile and he grinned. Acknowledging her efforts to raise his spirits with a kiss. He took her very slim phone and slipped it next to his in his pocket.

* * *

Selenis, Luna, August 2010

Sam sat on the bed with her laptop on a small cooling stand perched on her crossed legs. Her hair spilled down her shoulders and she adjusted her glasses on her nose as she sorted through the photos from Cam's flash drive. Some of these weren't just cars or Sam and Daniel, some of them were... artistic. She smiled slightly, glancing at the door to the washroom attached to their quarters. It was the largest design available in Selenis and actually spanned two tiers. There was a kitchen and a dining and living area 'downstairs' while on this tier there was the bedroom, washroom and another room they'd turned into a small study and library for them both. It wasn't like either of their homes in Colorado Springs, Selenis was an underground base after all, it lacked the airiness of a home on a planet's surface. As she watched the door to the washroom she heard Cam finishing up his venting with Selenis. Sam was sure they both enjoyed these exchanges.

"~Selenis, are you telling me you are completely unable to clean up the video data we uploaded from the cameras?~" he asked in a slightly vexed tone as he emerged from his evening shower with his hair still damp, tying the drawstring of his pyjama bottoms. Sam had swiped his pyjama top, it was the only thing she wore to bed, they both thought it better to take off their rings on their silver chains and keep them on the bedside table until the morning. Same with Cam's dog tags.

"~That is correct, Colonel Mitchell.~" Selenis confirmed. "~After analysing the data with the video specifications Dr. Carter provided me so that I would be able to interface with Stargate Command's subspace signals, I have determined that an interference signal of unprecedented strength was in effect during the recording of the files you uploaded.~" Cam's eyes had glazed over, which made Sam smile.

"signal of _what_ strength?" He looked at Sam, slightly lost.

"Unprecedented." she offered with a smile. It felt nice to be teaching Cam some Ancient for once.

"Oh, I've always liked that word, I should remember to use it more often." he muttered and Sam laughed out loud. "~Selenis, what kind of interference? Can't you compensate for it?~"

"~Unfortunately, no. The interference patterns are acyclic, non-deterministic, randomly variable, multi-spectral and self-modulating with harmonic spikes.~" Sam was pretty sure Cam didn't understand much of the second part of that answer but she liked the look of determined professionalism he wore. She was also pretty sure he'd look up those terms in the morning. Cam looked at Sam as he stood with his arms on his hips.

"~Guess that field wasn't just to keep the rain off. Can we shield against it for next time?~" he asked and she nodded with a conditional tilt of her head.

"~I'm still analysing some things but it will be my top priority after we get back.~" she replied. "~In the meantime we'll just work with the DHD's recently dialled address list and see what we can get out of it.~"

"Sam do you remember that time we were stuck on the side of a cliff for hours in the middle of a rainstorm?" His question had the gears in her brain a-spinning, but everything he'd just mentioned applied to the mission today. "Eighteen months ago, you nearly got hypothermia." His voice was soft, fearful. She did remember now. They'd had a lot of close calls, but that one wasn't even that close, the thing she remembered the most was that he was her warmth. Being in his arms had made her feel like she was safe.

"Yes, I remember. You think that meeting was between the same two parties?" She looked down for a second when he nodded. "You got the addresses from the DHD that time too didn't you? I don't remember that specifically, I think I had a high fever after they brought us down from that cliff." She looked back at him. "We'll check for address matches in both lists." He nodded again.

"~Thank you, Selenis, that will be all for tonight.~" He looked up into the ceiling when he spoke even though Sam was fairly certain Selenis' hardware was somewhere deep in the bowels of the facility. Sam did it too, she couldn't help it. He waved a hand and the large recessed screen across from their bed cleared of the usual displays they had running on it and resumed its glossy black appearance. It seemed to be the same material as the walls of the 'gate room and even turned translucent. Other such screens in their quarters showed the hangar bay from their elevated position in one of the towers above the blister of the 'gate room itself. This one, surely due to poor architectural design, showed the wall of rock behind the jumper bay attached to the 'gate room, hence the reason it usually remained opaque when not displaying data screens.

"~Of course, Colonel Mitchell. Good night, Dr. Carter.~" the AI signed off for the evening, she wouldn't interrupt them again unless there was an emergency.

"~Good night, Selenis, see you tomorrow.~" She watched Cam carefully as he crawled onto the bed and planted an arm on her opposite side and glared at her sternly.

"You better not be working in my bed." He pouted and looked down at her laptop.

"No," she replied with a smile, "sorting the photos and videos from our alternate selves." His eyebrows lifted in curiosity. "Want to see some?" He nodded and propped up his pillow so he could sit back against the bedstead, he leaned in against her but she shook her head, handing him the laptop and raising his arms up above his head. She grinned at his confused look but was sure it would soon disappear. She rolled over his leg and pushed the other aside so she could sit between them and nestle against his chest and she felt his lips on her cheek as he brought his arms down around her and lay the laptop back in her lap. She tapped away at the keyboard and soon had a file from her video diary playing.

"Cameron, why haven't you made me any of this corn bread before? It's so good." The Sam on the video then mouthed something silently and Sam raised her hands to her mouth with her eyes wide, she remembered that! Cam reached over and paused the video and touched his hand to her cheek.

"I remember making that video. I remember what I said under my breath just then." She turned to look over her shoulder at the amused quirk of Cam's eyebrow. "I said, 'not as good as your macaroons, though'" She giggled as Cam laughed.

"You were still hiding from me that you liked them back then?" He chuckled as she nodded, still covering her mouth in her hands. He started the video again.

"You're such a contradiction sometimes, you're into all these typical guy things, but you have the best pie crust recipe I've ever tasted. I bet I know what you're thinking right now. 'Not as good as my Grandma's'" Cam laughed at her impression of his drawl and nodded against her cheek. "I can't wait until we can live together some day, and not just because I love having you cook for me, I want to cook for you too." Sam smiled, she'd made them some spaghetti bolognese earlier. "I know it will happen someday, Cam. I know it. Talk to you later, sweetie." The next video began right after.

"Oh, Cam, I am steaming! So angry!" The Sam in the video gave a frustrated growl and took her glasses off. "Why do some men think they can just..." She grimaced on the screen. "do... whatever they want." Sam felt Cam stiffening behind her and she lifted her arm to cup his cheek as they continued to watch. "I told him that no matter how much he wants to spend on his home theatre, it would never be enough for me to ever tolerate such behaviour. I don't need his business!" On screen Sam glowered. "If it had happened off-world I'd just kick his ass, if it happens again I will. I think I'm going to join the gym. Maybe I can find a way to blow off steam there." Her eyes softened suddenly as she looked into the camera. "I'm lucky to have you, love, you're a good man. Actually, I'm going to call you right now and tell you that." The video ended abruptly. Cam's arms around her held her a little more tightly and she leaned into him a little more. They watched several more of her diary entries, from funny to lovesick, from informative to whimsical. There was days worth of her diaries though, so they decided to leave the rest to watch at other times and queued one of the videos Cam had taken.

A breezy, sunny day, evident by the wind blowing through Sam's soft, golden tresses as she walked towards the camera. She looked to her left and a slow pan revealed her to be on a beach, the sea breaking on the sands and lapping at her bare feet. Her light linen top pressed to her figure by the breeze over a cotton shirt, and her soft blue skirt billowed out to her side. Her hand reached up to push a lock of wayward hair away from her eyes as she paused in her stride, gazing off to the horizon.

"That's the woman I love, the woman who loves me." came Cam's almost whispered narration over the slight whistle of the wind. "When she looks into the distance like that, it reminds that she's seen further than most human beings ever will. She's my inspiration. Maybe one day I'll tell her that." The video faded out with Sam still glancing out to sea. Cam cleared his throat slightly behind her and she smiled, turning her head to look at him, he was blushing and it made her grin. That video and the next one must have been taken during their time in Mexico, when they got married, when it started it showed Sam lying on her stomach on a bed, looking into the camera as Cam walked into the room. Her bare skin shone in the early morning light and her smile was radiant as she rested her head on a forearm. She was glad at Cam's foresight in knowing it would be a good idea for them to save the videos he shot himself, after all he only had the one muse.

"What are you doing, Mr. Carter?" The Sam on the video asked as she brought her head up to lean on an elbow. Her head turned to follow the camera as Cam obviously came to lie on the bed himself, facing Sam so her hand holding her chin let her curl her pinkie against her lip.

"I just want to have something that captures you right now," his hand reached out to brush some hair from her cheek, "when you smile like that, when your eyes twinkle like that. You're always beautiful, Sam, but when I woke up this morning I was undone, you know?." She looked into the camera with a subtle smile. "I don't know what I'm trying to say. I just need to record this." He chuckled and she reached across and took the phone and turned it around to capture him, his goofy grin and sparkling eyes under his mussed hair.

"This is what _I_ think is the most beautiful sight in the world. No one will convince me otherwise." The video ended on Sam's impassioned words. Sam stopped her media player and looked up at Cam, whose hands were wrapped around her, hugging her to him.

"I want what she had Cam. I want to be able to say you're my husband." He nodded, unable to speak. "Soon alright?" He nodded again as she closed her laptop and he moved it to the bedside table on his side. He slipped her glasses off and lay them atop the computer. She turned in his arms and curled up against his chest as he shifted down to lie with her. He flicked the lights off with a thought as he kissed her lips tenderly and repeatedly.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**Voices from a Lost Time – Chapter 7**

Urdijina, M3R-921, December 2007

Sam gasped as she clutched at Cam's arm. She was seeing things. She _had_ to be seeing things. Light-headed! That's right she'd been in the hot springs too long and now she was light-headed and dizzy and _seeing_ things!

"Do you see that?" Cam asked incredulously and she cursed, closing her eyes in frustration.

"A floating wall of Ancient text? Yes, I do." she replied with a grimace.

"A floating wall of Ancient text is right! What the Hell is going on?" He spun them around and she nearly slipped, clutching at him, pressing against his chest. "Oh, sorry, Sam." He wrapped his arms around her and made sure she was steady before letting her pull away, still holding onto her elbow with a steadying hand while turning his head this way and that. "Where is this coming from?"

"I have no idea." she grumbled before walking closer to the hologram, one arm still clutching the back of Cam's robe. "I suppose it stands to reason. This planet has an orbital Stargate, but the people still know of the Ancients, of Atlantis... they have rituals dedicated to those who come from the City of the Ancestors." She frowned slightly as she examined the wall of text. It was nothing like the display on Merlin's device, which shimmered and wavered. This looked almost solid. "They meant for us to see this. Maybe they don't know it happens, they can't have had a visitor for ten thousand years after all, they've just kept the rituals alive. Maybe ingesting the water from the cataract has something to do with it?" She looked at Cam, but he only shrugged at her. "Still, this is meant for us." She cursed and spun around to glare at Cam who looked at her in puzzlement. She sighed and laid her other hand on his shoulder. "Sorry, just frustrated." He nodded with a slight smile.

"It's alright, Sam." He looked at the text with a slight frown. "It's no good to us if we can't read it, is it?" She nodded, turning back to the text. Cam reached out and passed a finger over a line of text which flashed and then disappeared, the rest of the text disappeared shortly thereafter and Sam turned her head in surprise.

"What just happened?" she cried.

"I don't know. I just touched the text about coming from Atlantis." He shrugged his shoulders and she turned to where the text had been floating a few seconds before. It took a moment, but she gasped and whipped her head around to face him again.

"You did what? How did you know-" Before she could finish the thought there was a bright flash of light and she found herself blinking at Cam, who was clutching at his eyes. "Maybe you've been in the water a bit too long as well, Cameron." She chuckled at his sheepish smile and patted his arm before turning to step out of the milky water. She looked down and blushed slightly at how the robes were clinging to her and quickly gathered up the box with her new hair clips and bracelet. Looking over her shoulder at Cam she smiled in gratitude and began to walk towards the alcove where she'd change back into her clothes. She was acutely aware Cam was probably watching her walk away. She made sure not to quicken her pace though.

She completed the ritual as it had been explained to her, disrobing once more, allowing the white cloth to pool at her feet under the cataract. She let the water flow over her with her eyes closed and ran her hands through her hair. This time the flowery scent of the lake mixed with the loamy smell of this water, filling her with memories of spring at the Academy in Colorado. She cupped some water in her hands and drank it, both flavours filling her mouth. Stepping out from under the flowing water she walked around the screening rock and dried herself off as well as she could with the cloth the Aleri had left for her. Dressing once more she brushed her long hair with a comb, thoughtfully provided for her, and pulled it into a ponytail. Using her reflection in a pool of standing water, lit from above by a hanging torch, she combed her fringe to the left across her forehead and used the hair clips Cam had given her as a present to pin it into place. They were lovely. She smiled in spite of herself, taking the bracelet in hand and stuffing the empty box in her pocket. She walked out, back towards the front of the cavern, and found Cameron waiting for her. He smiled when he saw her. Looking at her hair appreciatively.

"Lookin' good, Sam." he murmured. She looked down and smiled.

"Thanks, they really are lovely, Cam." She held the bracelet out to him and turned her wrist over when he took it. "Help me put it on?" He smiled and complied, tying the silver clasp around her wrist and letting his fingers linger on the skin before dropping his hands. She smiled and rubbed his forearm for a moment before walking towards the entrance while he fell into step beside her after picking up his weapons from where he'd left them. Once outside they found the Aleri waiting for them and returned the bow they were given. The youths indicated they would remain behind to carry out the last of their duties, but assured them the path back to the village was clearly marked and lit, so they both set off side by side.

The scent of the water still lingered in her nostrils, and it was only made more powerful when combined with Cam's scent. She found herself drifting close to him as they walked silently. Smiling whenever her arm brushed against his until they arrived in the village. Jinaiya and Urisca greeted them warmly and led them to a long table in the center of the village where a small ceremony was held to mark their agreement. Sam and Urisca exchanged formal words of intent and agreed that the Urdijine scribes would produce a document to be signed by both as representatives of their peoples. Urisca made it clear however that they already considered the agreement to be in effect and Sam accepted that happily, aware of a small group of refugees in desperate need of relocation. She made arrangements for Urisca to appoint someone to return with them to meet with the leader of the refugees. After that they got down to the real business of the evening. Eating and drinking to excess, then dancing, perhaps not necessarily in that order. Something akin to flutes were played to produce lively melodies, something akin to wine was drunk to get them tipsy, something akin to boar was eaten to sate their appetites, and Sam actually let Cam dance with her, or at least something akin to dancing.

As the smallest of Urdijina's three moons rose in the sky Sam found herself sitting beside Cam, watching the Urdijine dancing and cheering around a large festive bonfire. They were an extremely friendly people, they would welcome anyone Atlantis brought to them. Which made it imperative she could ensure their hospitality wasn't abused. It was far too important that this be kept a safe place. She glanced beside her at Cameron's grinning face and his enthusiastic clapping to the up-tempo music. She realised something she never would have thought possible. Cameron understood people. He could tell what was important to them. What they would accept and what they wouldn't. She'd seen him earlier clapping several Urdijine on the shoulder in a manner she'd never seen them do amongst themselves and it had not fazed them. The training she'd received from the IOA before taking up this post told her that the lack of contact she normally observed between these people should be imitated intently during any interaction with them, but Cam was different. He could see that it wasn't a matter of strict compulsion, just one of traditional form. It was how they did things, but not something they were passionate about. Which boded well in future interactions. In fact, she realised he seemed to understand that it was more important to the Urdijine that he be honest in his actions, not holding back out of diplomatic tact. Maybe she could stand to learn some things from Cam herself. She reached across and laid her hand over his on his leg. He looked at her and grinned in return to her smile, lifting her hand and clasping the fingers which curled around the back of his hand.

"Thank you, Cam. This has been the best birthday I've had in a long time." she said softly into a lull in the music.

"Sam, it was entirely my pleasure." He smiled gently and stood up. "Anyways! I live for dancing!" He swept her up out of her seat as a much slower melody began playing and led her out amid clapping Urdijine as she laughed.

* * *

USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 2,782 days relative

"This isn't hard, Jackson," Cam glared at the linguist from where he stood by one of the holograms in the Asgard database room, "it makes no sense!" he cried, throwing up his hands. Daniel, drew his lips tight and sighed. He brought his hands up, holding his thumbs to his forefingers as if about to make a point and opened his mouth, but he paused, closed his eyes and let his arms drop.

"Let's finish there for today. This is a very tricky section." He was about to switch off the holograms when Cam came up and stopped him, laying his hand on the top of the console's concave control surface.

"No way! We've only been at it an hour." He backed up and faced the hologram again. "I can do it, I just have to..." he twisted his fingers through the air and then spread them out wide, "channel my chi!" Daniel chuckled and walked around the console to the hologram they were looking at. It was written in Asgard runes, a text detailing the history of strategic developments in the Asgard-Replicator War. A dry text, but it had the right combination of technical and cultural language and at least the subject matter was kind of interesting. Daniel held his hands up to the lines of text and scrolled them up.

"The thing about Asgard as a language is verb position. As an English speaker you're used to a subject – verb – object grammatical structure. Asgard is verb – object – subject. Where we would say 'Bob read the newspaper,' an Asgard would say 'read the newspaper Bob.' Then they use the Verb Second element order in subordinate clauses and modifying phrases. Of course it makes no sense to you. That's my point." He looked at Cam in understanding. "You've learned several languages before, you know better than most, you don't learn a language by translating in your head, you learn it by thinking in that language." Cam nodded. "Hell, Japanese is a subject – object – verb language and you know that."

"I'm doing better with Ancient and we don't even have any audio of it." Cam muttered and Daniel had to laugh.

"It helps that Alteran was spoken by beings with throats and mouths almost identical to ours. I don't think we'll ever be able to actually speak more than a simplified pidgin Asgard." Daniel walked towards Cam and put a hand on his shoulder. "And it also shows you are adaptable, Alteran is a free word order language like the Latin which derives from it. English is fixed word order." Daniel looked up in despair. "I swear, having English as a first language should count as a disability when it comes to learning new ones. So inelegant as well."

"We are tied to a language which makes up for in obscurity what it lacks in style." Cam muttered and Daniel looked at him in surprise. "You missed that movie night, Sam's still pissed at you since she picked the film. It was good too." Daniel chuckled and nodded in acquiescence. "I'm still kind of upset I have to learn two different kinds of Ancient." He glowered.

"Well, the vast majority of Ancient texts you'll encounter will be one of those two, the Alteran from the time they left Avalon, and the Lantean from when they came back from Atlantis. And there's enough differences between the two where, I think you'll agree, you can't just fudge it by knowing one. Not without several doctorates like me." He grinned and Cam rolled his eyes. "It also shows you how language can change over time, how the same word can change shape or have its meaning altered slightly, so that something translated with knowledge in one could be missing nuances from the other. Subtle things, like a word which has two distinct connotations, having one meaning take precedence over time, or the shape of a conjunction changing slightly with a subtle twist of the emphasis."

"I'm sure that's fascinatin' an' all." Cam crossed his arms in amused impatience. "I just want to be able to read the manuals on the power systems I'm tinkering with so I don't, you know," he waved his hands about and flourished his fingers, "kill us all in a massive explosion of fire and death and fiery death." Daniel glared at him.

"Yes. I want that too."

* * *

P1R-727, August 2010

"What the Hell did you say to them, Jackson?" Cameron yelled at the man running in front of him through the forested plateau, his long duster jacket billowing behind him. Cam reached into his own tan coloured duster and pulled out the automatic stubber he had secured to his side. He held it out behind him at the group of men chasing them and opened fire with a few quick bursts of the galactic equivalent of 9mm rounds. It was enough to send their pursuers scattering to hide behind trees momentarily.

"To be fair, Cameron," began Vala as she ran ahead of both men in her leather bustier, short jacket and trousers, with her ponytail whipping from side to side, "I don't think it was so much what he said, as what he didn't." Cam fired another burst at their pursuers before raising his radio to his lips.

"Sam, honey, if you want your fiancé back, sans bullet holes, I suggest you get that ship over here pronto." He glanced over his shoulder at the men who still chased them. Lucian Alliance thugs who provided muscle to the local kassa plantation manager. This moon was one of the four addresses they'd retrieved from the DHD on P4S-891 which matched with addresses gleaned from the DHD on P2W-217 eighteen months previously, the time when Cam and Sam had been stuck on a cliff face for seven hours after the Alliance unexpectedly showed up on the little backwater planet to conduct a clandestine meet-up with a third-party. They were trying to determine which of the four addresses was the destination of the folks the Lucian Alliance had been meeting. This moon probably wasn't it, it definitely seemed to be Alliance friendly territory.

"I think there was supposed to be some sort of passphrase, probably a precaution after we stumbled on Worrel's operation on P6G-452 a few years ago." yelled Daniel over his shoulder.

"Not one of my finest moments." groused Cam in remembrance.

"That's certainly one way to put it." retorted Daniel.

"I'm on my way, sweetie. Don't worry, no one gets to touch your cute little ass except me." Sam declared over the radio in reply to Cam's earlier missive. Vala giggled as much as anyone running full speed can giggle.

"That's a comfort to know, Sam." Cam rattled off into the radio before firing off another burst behind him to be greeted by several rapid-fire clicks, indicating the magazine was empty. "Jackson!" Daniel looked behind him and saw Cam waving his gun slightly and reached for his own, he then tossed it to Cameron while the Air Force officer tossed his forward. Daniel began reloading it after he caught it, while Cam flipped his new one over in his hand and swung his arm back around behind him to open up with another burst. Just then they emerged from the trees to find a grassy scrubland which ran only another twenty yards before ending in a sheer cliff. "What the-? Who put a ravine in the middle of my escape route?"

"Oh, for crying out loud!" cried Daniel as he spun around to find cover behind some rocks and dragged Vala with him. Cam dove behind another outcropping just as bullets ricocheted off the stones behind his head as he pressed his back against them and raised the radio back to his lips.

"Sam, where's my damn ship?" He held his gun over the top of the boulder and fired blindly into the trees behind him as he saw Daniel and Vala firing back a little more orthodoxly.

"Give it up, hasshak! There's no way out of here for you!" cried the voice of the mercenary leader of this band of thugs. "Come out and we won't shoot you! Not right away."

"You've got a lot to learn about negotiating a surrender, Tergali!" Daniel yelled back.

"I'm not negotiating your surrender, Hans Olo, I'm negotiating your death!" The mercenaries laughed hard at that and Cam shot Daniel a grimace. Cam took a mirror out of his pocket and used it to see the band of thugs begin to walk out of the cover of the trees, covering the rocks with their weapons. "Come out now or I start using grenades." Cam didn't have time to curse before an Al'kesh decloaked right in front of him at the lip of the cliff and it's ventral cannons swivelled from their locked position to aim right at the group of mercenaries. It hovered just a little above their heads and a clear melodious voice sounded from its external speaker system.

"Step away from my fiancé and our friends, or I will blow a new crater in your little moon!" Cam whipped his head to look at Daniel and Vala and they both looked at him incredulously.

"She didn't!" cried Daniel.

"She did." replied Vala.

Cam snuck a look over the boulders with the mirror to see the mercenaries rapidly back-pedalling away from the Goa'uld assault ship to the safety of the tree line. They fired the odd shot at it, but their weapons were nothing to the ship's hull. Cam knew Teal'c was piloting the ship from the precision of its movements, and he knew Sam was in charge when he saw the cargo bay doors on the belly of the ship slide open and the loading platform lower on its struts to settle just below the lip of the cliff over mid air. He raised the radio once more.

"Sam, are you really telling me to-" his question was cut off by Sam's voice.

"Don't argue with me, Cam. Hop to it!" He grumbled and looked over to Daniel and Vala and hooked his head towards the suspended platform while he got up on one knee and provided covering fire into the trees. They didn't move for a moment, looking at him in horror.

"Move it, you two!" He fired some more and the two finally were on the run, jumping the short distance from the edge to land on the platform and slide to a stop on their stomachs, then they scooted over to the leading edge and opened up on the trees themselves so Cam could make his own run. He got up and took a running leap from the edge and landed right on the lip, sliding along on his side while raising the radio to his lips again. "Pull us in, Sam!" The platform began retracting immediately and the Al'kesh slowly rose and backed away from the cliff. He dared not move until the platform was inside, but as soon as it was he was on his feet and rushing to the bridge, Daniel and Vala in tow. They crossed into the bridge as they were breaking orbit above the moon, the gas giant it circled around filling the view with a greenish light. Sam walked over and slipped her arms around him.

"Any bullet holes?" She smirked at him and patted him down as he chuckled ruefully.

"Thanks for the save, sweetness," he kissed her gently, "but today isn't U-day and I didn't go to an Alliance friendly bar to pick a fight." Sam grinned. "I can't believe you just did that."

"I love that show, Cam-" she began until Teal'c spoke.

"It is one of my favourites also, Colonel Mitchell." interjected the Jaffa. Cam closed his eyes as he saw Sam turn from Teal'c with a huge grin on her face. Daniel bent down to retrieve his glasses from his back pack on the floor of the bridge, not having worn them while they were undercover on the surface.

"And technically you could say it was an Alliance friendly moon." She poked his chest. Daniel spoke up while Vala was undoing the ponytail in her hair and shaking it out.

"I wouldn't really compare the Lucian Alliance to- Oww, Vala!" He rubbed the top of his head and glared at the raven-haired thief, who glared back in equal measure.

"I just can't believe you of all people would quote a TV show, Sam." Cam smirked at Sam's open mouthed look of shock and indignation. She poked his chest again.

"You don't have an exclusive mandate on pop culture references, Cameron Mitchell!" She gave his side a little punch and he grinned, wrapping his arms around her to pin hers to her sides.

"So would you really have blown a new crater in their little moon?" he asked huskily into her ear, feeling the heat in her cheek rising at his drawl.

"If anyone lays a hand on you, I'll make sure they fully understand the extent of my displeasure." she breathed against his neck.

"For crying out loud, will you two get a gorram room!" cried Daniel while he glared at them.

* * *

Selenis, Luna, August 2010

"Anyway, sir," Cam elaborated to the image of General Landry on the subspace comms screen in Command, "we used an Al'kesh the Jaffa loaned us after our MALP was destroyed as soon as it came through the 'gate. However, the moon seems to just be another kassa farm world."

"A particularly feisty one." Vala added.

"Yes, thank you, Vala," Cam smirked at her and she smiled happily, "I'm guessing Masim sent some people back and forth to this world during previous meetings at P4S-891 or the Lucian Alliance uses 891 frequently as a vaguely neutral meeting place."

"I see, Colonel, unfortunately that means all four address matches are Lucian Alliance worlds." Landry supplied to their consternation.

"How can that be, sir? The video surveillance clearly shows the stranger coming and going through the Stargate, he never stepped out beyond that interference field." Sam looked to Teal'c for confirmation and the Jaffa nodded that it was so, no-one else arrived by ship. "And they weren't Alliance either."

"That did indeed seem to be the case. However much this new information seems to contradict it." Teal'c concluded.

"As it is, we have nothing." Landry grumbled. "We can only wait until the next meeting as per the schedule given to us by Dr. Heidal, and hope for more matches."

"The option still exists to capture the representative. A large enough force should be able to accomplish such a task." Teal'c posited and Landry frowned slightly.

"That scenario has been put forward at Homeworld Command, Teal'c, but General O'Neill and I are both of the opinion that stealth and intelligence gathering are still our best options at this point." Landry looked down to his right at something said to him from off-screen. "Thank you, Walter. We'll have to cut this short, SG-1. We're due for a meeting with the Tok'ra over here. I'll let you know if they have anything, SGC out." Cam signed off as well and turned to his teammates to discuss any options they had until he spotted Daniel coming up the stairs with his laptop in hand. Sam tilted her head in curiosity.

"Guys, I've found something interesting in my audio notes." He laid the laptop on a console and looked at Cameron with a glint in his eye. "First though, I want to play you something else." He shrugged with a smile. "I have a habit of sometimes reading the last paragraph of a book before starting it, to see if I can come up with an idea of the plot from those last few sentences while I read the rest of it. I tried the same with these audio files, to see if I could follow my thread of inquiry from what I was working on last. Except, the last audio file was a bit small." He queued it up and pressed play.

"I keep my promises, Jackson." came Cam's voice through the speakers and Sam grinned, she must have realised what it meant, but Cam hadn't, he looked at Daniel in confusion. Daniel just smiled before queuing up the file he really wanted to play. Daniel's voice played through the speakers for a moment before he used the slider to advance the playback to a specific point.

"-it's written here that Merlin really hated these guys, that the Desdamendi and the men of Thule betrayed his people in the distant past. What I wouldn't give to be able to go back to Camelot right now-" he stopped the file and looked at them with a huge grin.

"What did the Inuit ever do to Merlin?" asked Cam incredulously. Daniel rolled his eyes. He closed the lid of his laptop and raised his fingers with a shrug of his shoulders.

"In this context, Thule is the mythical lost island of the arctic seas. And did you hear that name, 'Desdamendi'? That stem is the same, etymologically speaking, as Indesta." He paused to make sure they all understood what he'd just said. "Also," he chuckled wryly, "and I have no idea how I missed this before, Thule is known by several names, Thula, Tile, Thila and Thyïlea." He stopped again and watched them all. Vala and Sam looked at him with wide eyes.

"~Selenis, play back Ilemus' final log entry from the Archive repository.~" Vala ordered softly.

"~Of course, Vala.~" responded the computer and the audio transmission which had piped through Sam's comm from the outpost played over the speakers.

"~Final log, Selenis Arch- ~"

"~About half way through, please Selenis.~" Vala clarified.

"~-the few of us that are left.~" Ilemus gave a mirthless chuckle. "~We'll arrive in Sele-...~" There was a long pause as he trailed off. "~Lantica long before they arrive in Thyilea. May they rot on their long journey.~"

"~Thank you, Selenis. That'll do.~" Vala breathed.

"You're saying that the Desdamendi are the Indesta, and that Thule refers to their new home galaxy?" Sam asked Daniel with a hard stare.

"Yes." Daniel replied.

"That doesn't make any sense, Jackson. Why would Merlin, or the rest of the Lanteans, care what had happened millions of years before in a different galaxy?" Cam asked in consternation.

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Colonel Mitchell?" asked Teal'c with a raised eyebrow. Cam glared at him.

"I don't know. Which is why I want to do what I couldn't when I recorded this file. I want to go to Camelot." He glanced between Cam and Sam hopefully. "We're nowhere with the search for the ships, it'll be weeks until the next meeting, and the Tok'ra, love 'em to death and all, aren't likely to come up with something in the interim." He motioned to the both of them. "The two of you are going to Pegasus for the week for that treaty renewal, I was thinking I could go to Merlin's Library with Vala and Teal'c." Cam watched Daniel for a couple of seconds before speaking.

"Jackson," Cam looked down at his watch, Daniel sighed in frustration, "what are you still doing here? Don't you have to go see Meurik about getting a place to stay in the village?" Daniel's head shot back up and Vala clapped her hands excitedly. "Go on, I'll get it cleared with General Landry." Cam grinned and Daniel grabbed his laptop and shot off, Vala was already beating him down the stairs. "Keep Vala out of trouble!" Daniel stopped at the top of the stairs and looked at Cam very seriously.

"Cameron, thank you." he said softly, nodding his head deeply and giving the laptop a little lift. He turned and walked down the stairs.

"Yeah, sure." Cam replied with a confused frown. Teal'c smiled and nodded to them both before walking away.

"Teal'c," Sam called, and the Jaffa turned to face her, "keep them _both_ out of trouble, please." The Jaffa bowed with a decided smirk on his lips. Sam turned to Cameron and rubbed his arm. "I'd say you were turning into a big softy, except you've always been one." She chuckled at Cam's glare.

"Jackson's right, we're not in any position to find the guys who sent the ships yet." He sat by a console and Sam sat across from him. "He'd just be twiddling his thumbs while we're in Pegasus. Jackson with nothing to read has been known to awaken sleeping gods." Sam smiled ruefully. She stood up and walked over to Cameron, sitting in his lap with her arms around his neck. He put his arms around her back and stomach to rest on her hip and smiled when she leaned in to kiss him softly, searchingly.

"You know he wasn't thanking you for agreeing to let him go to Camelot, right?" She lifted a hand to caress his cheek and laughed softly at his look of confusion. "Oh, sweetie, you're adorable." She kissed him again so he decided that he didn't really care that he didn't know what she was talking about.

* * *

Atlantis, September 2010

Cameron offered her a piece of his pie on a fork and she smiled, taking it into her mouth and letting him slip his fork out as she smiled and savoured the flavours before very grudgingly offering him a spoonful of her blue jello. He grinned and accepted, then watched her with _that_ smile and she knew exactly what he was thinking. She reached across and pinched his cheek.

"I _don't_ love you more than blue jello, Cameron." She looked away with a smile as he laughed. She glanced around the mess hall in Atlantis at everyone eating their breakfast before turning back to him. "To answer your question, Selenis has drawn up a list of the raw materials she'll need to manufacture the power relays I designed, your ideas about internal distribution are going to work out great too." She let him brush his fingers along the back of her hand on the table. "Unfortunately we'll need some raw materials which Selenis doesn't have. The power relay designs in Hypraxia were obsolete by Selenis' time and the materials necessary to interface with them properly no longer used in more contemporary Alteran design."

"We'll have to mine for them?" Cam asked and she nodded. "What about the sources she had been using during her construction?"

"She wouldn't have been mining for those materials specifically," she intertwined her fingers with his, "but they may have been present in the ores she was mining. We'll go through her databanks when we go back."

"Dr. Carter." She turned as her name was called to find Carson Beckett walking towards her. Cam raised a hand in greeting and was answered with a friendly nod. "I'm glad I caught you before you left, love." he burbled and motioned for them to follow him. "Jennifer and I have a surprise for you." Sam glanced in puzzlement at Cam and he just shrugged and tilted his head, so they followed behind the cloned Scottish doctor. "I understand you're going back to Urdijina later today, lovely place, fascinating people."

"That's right, they requested for us to be the ones to renew our treaty with them, since we were the original signatories." She smiled at the memory of her birthday spent with Cam.

"You negotiated it, I just tried not to cause a diplomatic incident." Cam chuckled and Sam slapped his arm at his self-deprecation.

"Yes, well, they're a very interesting people medically," Carson elucidated, "whatever is in that light keeps them remarkably healthy." Sam quirked an eyebrow, she hadn't known about that. "That has nothing to do with the surprise though." He chuckled as they rounded the corner into the infirmary. "I've brought her, Jennifer."

"Oh, good, Carson, good. Dr. Carter." Jennifer Keller happily grasped Sam's hand and shook it. "And Colonel Mitchell, good to see you as well."

"Good to see you too, Doc." he smiled then perched himself on one of the beds out of the way.

"Here's the surprise." Carson came back from one of the cabinets holding a vial which he held up for Sam to see. "This is something Jennifer and I have spent the last several weeks on, it is a serum which will cause your body to produce an enzyme which will block the receptors on the enzyme produced by the protein marker." Sam blinked and her eyes widened. "It's only temporary, but the effects should last a few days. We've run all the tests we can bar a live trial. We'd like you to test it, but only if you're willing, love." Sam nodded eagerly and Cam grinned at her. Carson smiled and handed the vial to Dr. Keller. An hour later they were running a test with Carson's gene expression scanner and Sam hugged Cam fiercely after she had the ball of light shining brightly and the bar on the display registering in the highest yellow bands and into the yellowish-green. Thirty minutes after that she was laughing her head off as she sent a puddle jumper pirouetting through the sky above Atlantis, while he cheered her on from the co-pilot's seat.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**Voices from a Lost Time – Chapter 8**

Herian's moon, P6C-211, October 2008

"Colonel, are you sure you want to go in there alone?" asked Colonel Al Reynolds of SG-3 who would be in charge of all the SG teams on this side of the enclosure while Colonel David Dixon of SG-2 was in charge of the contingent at the gate house they'd found at the opposite end. Reynolds was a good man. They'd been friends for years now, but she wasn't sure she could make him understand her need to do this.

"Yes, Colonel. I stand the best chance of getting to the device and deactivating it." she replied. It wasn't _strictly_ a lie either. She was certainly more likely than Daniel to actually get to the device, and although her ability to deactivate it without taking out the crystals was questionable, at least she hadn't shot at the inner workings of one with a Beretta to deactivate it. She couldn't help a quick glance at the archaeologist who was still looking at her in concern.

"Very well, Colonel Carter, good luck and godspeed, we'll have your back as soon as you get the field down." He gave her a quick salute which she returned. Then gave his radio a double tap to indicate to her they would be in stealth comms mode when the field came down. She sighed and turned to her teammates, current and former, she also included Kianna in that, now that she and Jonas were practically inseparable since they'd worked with her to save Kelowna all those years ago. Vala bounded over first and hugged her fiercely.

"We'll be waiting, Samantha. Be safe!" she whispered and Sam smiled, embracing her friend gratefully. Teal'c bowed to her, he hadn't been happy when she mentioned her plan, but had accepted he wasn't as good a choice as she was for the mission. Daniel nodded, never letting his blue eyes leave her face. Jonas and Kianna both came and held her hands in theirs, wishing her luck. She nodded to them all again and sighed deeply. She lifted her arm with the device strapped to it and pressed the crystal after a moment, the world faded into a slightly red tinge, her teammates definitely could still see her outline as their eyes followed her all the way to the archway.

She held out her hand and could feel the field, it wasn't springy now, it was soft, molten. She pushed against it and felt her hand forcing itself in, she stepped forward and pressed harder against the field with both hands until her whole body was pressing against it, she forced her head into it and after that each step took considerably more strength than the last, she found she couldn't breathe, but suppressed the momentary flash of panic at the realisation, she just had to get through the barrier. She forced her arms forward and clenched her fingers as if she could pull herself through the field. Another step followed by another, her lungs were burning by the time she couldn't feel any forward progress in her movement, she tried screaming, but didn't know if anything came out, the only thing she could hear was the rush of blood in her ears. She forced her head down and pushed with her neck until she found herself on the ground, her face pressed into the dirt of the path, she turned over onto her back and saw she was in the tunnel, inside the field. She laughed nervously and lay there for a moment just getting her breath back before she deactivated the cloaking device and felt a sudden rushing spasm through her body as the time dilation field took her in its grip.

She quickly climbed up to one knee and readied her P90. The effort to push through the field may have been a bridge too far, she hadn't slept for over twenty-eight hours, she was running on caffeine and adrenalin. At least she was experiencing time at the same rate as Cam now. She forced herself to stand and move through the tunnel to the other side of the building, glancing out to see if anyone was guarding it. There was no one, obviously they considered themselves completely safe within the barrier. She quickly stepped out and into the forest off the path, moving swiftly through the trees to the edge of the grasslands. She stopped at the last line of trees and took her binoculars out of her tac vest's pocket, scanning the terrain for a possible route towards the pyramid which would keep her out of sight. The tall grass would sway, and there was very little moving air inside the field so it couldn't be disguised as the wind. She needed to follow a line of rocks if possible. She began moving around the treeline trying to find something that would give her cover.

About a quarter of the way around she found what she needed, a low ridgeline with several protective outcroppings of rock running along its length. Wherever she couldn't find cover in the ridge she'd find it behind the rocks. She crouched down in the treeline and quickly forced herself to eat an energy bar before setting off. She needed to stay alert. Twenty minutes later she was approaching the flat spread of land around the pyramid itself. She'd seen no-one in her dash so far. She looked around the perimeter through her binoculars and still found nobody. She sighed in confusion. Were they all inside? She'd be in trouble if they were. She decided to go for it. Running out and dashing for the pyramid under the massive Ha'tak.

She quickly moved around the grey stone walls of the landing site and found a low shaft which angled upwards through the wall of the pyramid. She wracked her brain for everything Daniel had ever told her about the structures. She knew that shafts often led inside to provide air and light. This could well be her way in. She pushed her P90 to the side and hunkered down into the shaft. It was built at a shallow angle, enough for her boots to get a grip against the rough stone and let her scrabble up with the help of her hands. It was tough going, at least two hundred meters hunched over as the shaft corkscrewed up the face of the pyramid, the last fifty meters she made on her hands and knees as her lungs shuddered with each breath. When she got to the end of the shaft she found herself in a windowed gallery above the main chamber at the heart of the pyramid. She looked to either side and collapsed on the floor for several minutes when she found no-one in sight. After a while she forced herself up again and looked through the window into the main chamber. She could see nothing through the gloom except that the ruins in the center seemed to be lit up. She looked through her binoculars, but could see nobody amid the fallen stone columns and ruined walls. She sighed and began moving again, she needed to get down there.

Moving down the gallery she saw a torchlit hallway leading into the pyramid's structure and followed it cautiously, her P90 raised before her. It led to several chambers which she could see were used as store rooms, filled with barrels and crates which she ignored. She was looking for something else, something had to get all that stuff in here and she looked around until she found it, a ring platform, she hoped she could use it to send her down to the base of the pyramid. She started keying in a sequence and stepped onto the pad and cursed when the rings disappeared back into their recesses in the floor, she was definitely on the Ha'tak. She moved to the control panel and tried to identify the sequence which would send her to the base of the pyramid, except she saw the indicators flash up to show that it was being activated. She quickly ran for the door and into the corridor, hiding in one of the alcoves near the ring room.

The sound of the ring activation kept her hidden until she could hear the shuffling of soft soled boots. Not the typical garb of Jaffa. She took a mirror from a pocket of her tac vest and angled it to get a look at the door. She was stunned by what she saw. Several men, and they were human, not Jaffa, wearing leathers and furs, carrying mêlée weapons and ancient looking missile weapons attached to their backs. They were laughing and taunting someone in their midst and when they separated enough for her to see who it was she couldn't believe her eyes. Two of their number were holding another man up by the arms. His upper body covered by a grimy shirt which was slit open in several places revealing long cuts and gouges which bled into the cloth, the rest of him was slick with sweat and grime and mud, which made his clothes completely unrecognisable. His shaggy haired head hung loosely against his chest so she couldn't see his face. When the men began moving to the door one of their number stopped his companions and pulled the man's head up by his hair and lifted a skein of brown liquid to splash over his lips and bearded cheeks and chin, laughing at him as he flinched away when the liquid touched the cuts and grazes all over his face. They dragged him on through the corridors and away from her position. She cursed. It _was_ Cam, however much she didn't want to believe it. She couldn't go back for the device. They might kill him. Just how long had he been in here? He had a full beard, it was thick and tangled, his hair was longer and mussed against his head. Her eyes welled up with tears as she realised it must have been months at least.

She forced it down, took her P90 in hand and proceeded after them down the corridor as quietly as possible. She glanced around the corner as she saw them enter a room which the typical schematics for a Ha'tak indicated was some kind of large open chamber, typically it was where the Jaffa soldiers ate their meals. It had multiple entrances too, she turned back and headed for another one of them, quickly arriving at her destination to the sounds of raucous laughter and singing. She already knew these guys weren't Jaffa so who were they? Then she froze, her eyes widening. There was a Goa'uld in that chamber. A Goa'uld raucously partying with a group of humans... leathers and furs... Herian. He was still alive. She cursed silently and tried to get a look inside the room. Thick cloths, banners and furs hung from the ceiling and the walls, thick rugs lined the floors throughout the space, she slipped in behind a wall hanging which separated two parts of the room and hunkered down to look through a gap. She saw two men throwing Cam down onto the ground and a large man bedecked in thick furs stood from his seat, next to which sat a large helm with huge antlers rising and sweeping back from the temples. Herian. He walked over to Cam as he tried to force himself up. Cam was such a stupidly determined fighter. He never knew when to just stop and conserve his strength.

"And how did Colonel Mitchell perform today, Lamaru?" asked the Goa'uld in his booming voice, it was touched with amusement. The man who had poured the brown liquid into Cam's mouth earlier stepped forward grinning.

"He did magnificently, my Lord Herian. We pursued him for eighteen hours through the rocky crags to the west." The others in the room cheered raucously and Herian nodded with a grin. "He even bested Yirwen and took his spear!" He aimed a kick at a hapless hunter beside him and everyone laughed. Herian didn't seem upset by this, in fact he grinned more broadly. Lamaru then pulled at the furs covering his shoulder and showed a bloody red line running down his arm. "He even managed to wound me!" He laughed. Herian stood over him and poked the jagged cut with a finger and laughed at the wince it elicited in his lieutenant as did everyone else. Lamaru then raised a hand and looked all around the room at each of them. "Then he killed Dera and Lojni, it was an incredible fight, my Lord, he ambushed us, caught us in our own trap." Herian nodded in understanding with an appraising look to Cam. He walked over to stand in front of him and motioned for the two men to pick him up again.

"I must congratulate you once more, Colonel Mitchell. You are easily the best sport we have enjoyed in long decades! None have managed to best more than one of my men, let alone eight as you have." He stood straight and put a hand over his chest. "To be sent on to the Next Land in such a manner is a glorious end! I thank you on behalf of Dera and Lojni. THEY HUNT BEYOND!" he cried at the end and all the men cheered and began chanting the same until Herian waved them down to quiet. "So how will I reward you for such a splendid effort today?" He pulled a long blade from a sheathe at his hip, it didn't look like much, but Sam could see the light glinting off the edge. It looked incredibly sharp. "Somewhere not so painful today I think, we want you to try just as hard next time, is that not so?" The men cried out and stamped their feet, howling. Sam grimaced. Cam got his feet under him and shook his shoulders against his captors and Herian motioned them off. They did so, allowing Cam to stand on his own, but still holding on to his forearms. "You have something to say, Colonel Mitchell?" He stood up tall and spun slowly on the spot, holding his arms out wide and motioning the men to silence. As he did this, Sam saw Cam's eyes flick to look exactly at where she was hiding and she gasped. Did he know? How could he know? She raised her P90. "What is it that you want to say, Colonel?" asked Herian, leaning in closer towards Cam.

"I'm going to kill you in the next sixty seconds." Cam said weakly. Sam opened fire, hitting Herian in the chest and shoulder then switching targets to the men who had already released Cam in surprise as he lunged forward and grabbed the hand Herian used to hold his sword, swivelling and slashing it across the throats of two men behind the Goa'uld. After shooting the two guards Sam ran forward, further into the space, sweeping her fire to take down several of the men on the opposite side of the room, and got herself behind the cover of a column so she could reload. She looked to Cam and her eyes widened in alarm when she noticed Herian was still alive, fighting against Cam's hold on his arm, but she could do nothing with them in such close quarters. Instead she concentrated on the other hunters, slapping her new magazine into place as they came charging at her with their mêlée weapons. Idiots. She shot them as they came, using the tables and columns in the room as obstacles. The eight or so hunters were soon reduced to just Lamaru who actually used his brain and threw his spear in her direction, despite his injured arm. She had to roll out of the way and when she got her feet under herself again she found Lamaru almost on top of her. She dropped her shoulder and rolled against his charge, flipping him over her hip to land on a table which collapsed under him, she pulled her knife from the back of her tac vest and threw it to find its mark in Lamaru's exposed throat as he got to his knees.

When she turned back to Cam and Herian she found Cam standing behind the Goa'uld whose chin and neck were covered in the blood he'd coughed up after she'd shot him. Cam had a knee against Herian's leg forcing him down, and held his wrist in a lock which kept the blade an inch under Herian's throat. Cam was leaning over him and pushing down. Sam pulled up her P90 and switched it to single fire mode. Chest was out, head was out, Cam was too close, she shifted her aim to the foot on the opposite side of Cam which the Goa'uld was using to hold up his weight, she glanced up at Cam to find him looking at her, he nodded and looked back down at Herian, pushing harder.

"There can be only one, you son of a bitch." he roared. Sam took aim and fired, destroying the Goa'uld's ankle. He cried out in pain for an instant before it was cut off suddenly, along with his head as the blade passed easily through his neck, spilling his blood over the furred rug in front of him. Cam fell onto his hands and knees and she rushed to his side, wrapping her arms around his shoulders to keep him from falling down on the blade, pulling him away and collapsing on the floor along with him. "'Cause the sequels sucked!" he cried out in a harsh voice and began laughing hysterically. She clutched at him, pulling him to her frantically and he buried his face against her. "I knew you'd come, Sam, I knew you'd come."

* * *

Skies east of Washington D.C., August 2009 (alternate timeline)

"What city is that?" Daniel asked in horror as lances of plasma rained down from orbit to the northwest of them. Cam looked over his shoulder as he followed the line of the Potomac northwards as it divided Virginia from Maryland and ran in to the nation's capital, he turned back swiftly to look forward once more.

"Washington." he replied in a controlled voice. He clutched at the yoke and clenched his jaw, but it was no use. Looking over again involuntarily, he grimaced and blinked rapidly. His fingers flew over the switches on the control board ahead of him and he flipped off the radio links between himself and the ground and the rest of Sierra Golf flight, leaving just the link to Sam's plane. He reached up with a hand and unzipped the top of his flightsuit, reaching in and grabbing at Sam's phone which he'd pocketed earlier at the airfield. He pulled it out and flipped it open, navigating for the camera functions and cursed to find the little indicator which told him her memory card was full and he couldn't record a video. He stuffed it back in his pocket and looked back over his shoulder. Slamming a fist against the top of his flight console, then against the lip of the canopy beside him.

"Cam?" came Sam's worried voice over her radio link to their plane as Daniel leaned forward in his seat in alarm.

"Mitchell! What are you doing?" cried the archaeologist. Cam unlatched his facemask, ripping it away from over his mouth and spun his head, looking over his shoulder.

"Jackson, give me your phone." He held his hand up over his shoulder and beckoned with his fingers.

"What? What are you talking about?" Daniel clutched at the top of the console in front of him.

"Daniel! I know you have it! Everything you've done while we've been here is on that phone, so I _know_ you have it! Give it to me!" He shook his hand viciously, flexing and closing his fingers.

"Alright, I was going to give it to you, I just want to know why." He heard rustling and zippers being opened and felt the wedge of plastic being placed in his hand and he whipped it forward, navigating through to the camera and having it flick into widescreen mode so that the screen of the phone rotated ninety degrees as he held it up, he pushed the yoke to the left and had the plane flying at a slight roll as he curved back northwards and got ready to start the video.

"Cam, what are you doing?" asked Sam again over the radio.

"I'm going to prove to the universe that sometimes arrogance is a damned virtue!" he replied and started recording.

* * *

Skies north of Kilp-Yavr, Russia, August 2009 (alternate timeline)

They flew on past the squadron of Sukhoi Su-27 Flankers from the 9th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Russian Air Force as they bravely took on the 'gliders coming in behind Sierra Golf 1 and 2. They were minutes away from Kilp-Yavr air base after their mad dash over the north Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. This was the home of the 9th IAP, and of the Alpha 'gate the Russians had raised from the wreck of the Achilles. As they came in to land they could see the towering beams of plasma descending upon Murmansk to the southeast, a sight which Sam did her best to ignore. She taxied her F-15 onto the apron and opened the canopy as ground staff came by with a ladder gantry for her to get out of the fighter. She thanked them with the 'spasibo bolshoe' Daniel had taught her, but they only nodded as they took her helmet. Then she got her boots on Russian soil again for the first time since she and the rest of SG-1 had helped Dr. Svetlana Markova investigate why they'd lost contact with their Stargate Program being run out of Kuybyshev Air Base eight years before. She was quickly met by a petite Russian Army Major who gave her a quick salute.

"Dr. Carter, I am Major-" she began, but Sam interrupted her, they didn't have time for the whole introduction merry-go-round.

"Daria Voronkova, adjutant to Colonel Chekhov. Yes, I know, believe it or not, we've met before." She smiled at the woman's wide eyes and she stepped around her heading for Cam's F-15 as he killed the engines after parking it beside hers. "Congratulations on the promotion. You were a Captain last time I saw you." She waited for the gantry to be wheeled towards Cam's plane and crossed her arms. She watched as Cam climbed out and helped Daniel out of the second seat, Sam helped get him down the gantry and he blinked as he saw the Russian officer.

"Daria, it's really good to see you again." He smiled and the Major looked between them as if they were crazy. "I still haven't developed a taste for salo by the way." He chuckled.

"We have never met I assure you, I would remember such a thing." She seemed to blush softly and Cam chuckled and stuck out his hand.

"I know we've never met, Cameron Mitchell, kinda sorta Colonel, USAF." He smiled as she shook his hand and then kinda sorta gave him a salute.

"Please come with me, I have arranged transportation for you to the site of the Anchor," she glanced at them in their thin flightsuits as they stood in the light snowfall, "and some more clothes." She turned on her heels and they looked at each other in confusion at what she'd said. Still, they followed, and Sam slipped her hand into Cam's as they walked. She wanted as much contact with him as she could get from now on. He seemed to feel the same as he squeezed her hand and brushed his thumb over the back of it.

"Oh, Jackson, here's your phone, sorry I blew up at you in the plane." He reached into his flightsuit and pulled it out, holding it out to the archaeologist. Daniel didn't take it, instead pursing his lips together and glancing at Sam. She tilted her head questioningly.

"You made her a promise, didn't you?" he asked Cam. "That you'd make sure you both get together after we reverse things, right?" His eyes glittered as he looked between them and then fixed on Cam's until he nodded in reply. "Then promise me you'll get what's on that to me through the paradox." Cam looked at Daniel for a long moment then clutched the phone in his hand and slipped it back in his flightsuit.

"Consider it done, Jackson." he promised. Daniel nodded and sped up to catch up with Major Voronkova, leaving Cam walking hand-in-hand with Sam.

* * *

Urdijina, M3R-921, September 2010

Sam stepped through the Stargate to be bathed in the faintly pink light of Urdijina's sky. The scents of the windblown grass immediately brought to mind her memories of their last visit. She closed her eyes and smiled, opening them when she felt him at her side, even before his hand found it's way to rest on her lower back. She turned her head to look in his eyes, letting herself lean back against his chest for a moment before turning to face their welcoming committee. Magistrate Urisca stepped forward with barely repressed delight at seeing them once again. Jinaiya and Ildona shared knowing glances behind him while Orbaro and Yeva conversed amicably until the rites of welcome began.

"Colonel Carter, Colonel Mitchell, it is a great joy for us to see you both once more! You and your people are always welcome on Urdijina." He bowed gracefully to the level of a friend and Sam smiled at him warmly.

"Magistrate Urisca, on behalf of myself and Colonel Mitchell, I thank you for your continued welcome and hospitality. We are greatly honoured to visit your world and your people." Both she and Cam bowed to match Urisca who beamed in response. "However, I retired my military commission recently, from now on you need only address me by my salutation of 'Doctor', it marks me as a scientist among my people." Urisca's eyebrows rose at hearing this, but he soon put this new found knowledge to use.

"Ah, of course, Dr. Carter. Yeva mentioned something about this. We have met several scientists among those who live in Atlantis. Learned men and women all. They have taught us much in a short time as you can see." He motioned to the village behind him with his arm outstretched. Sam indeed saw a great difference, there were several larger buildings, in keeping with the Urdijine's style, which she knew would house their new hospital and scribe home, their term for a school. The smithing yards had expanded, which was likely the main source of Orbaro's much mellowed mien. The main attraction however was the large covered bazaar which took up much of the center of the village now, sheltered under a canopy of rose coloured cloth which billowed in the breeze. It was a gathering place for all the new cultures which had come to sow their seeds in the soil of Urdijina.

"It is indeed quite a sight, Urisca. Your people must be very proud." Cam nodded his approval and the administrator smiled broadly.

"Very much so, Colonel Mitchell. Come, come." He motioned them towards the village and they fell into step behind Urisca and Orbaro who took to discussing a new project amongst themselves. Yeva hung back a bit and followed on behind when a young man came to hand her a missive which she dealt with promptly. Jinaiya and Ildona joined Sam and Cameron, forming a tight little cluster in the center. Ildona glanced between them both and smiled knowingly.

"You both are promised to each other now?" He raised an eyebrow enquiringly. Jinaiya giggled beside Cam, as she walked behind Sam and the Farmer's Herta. Sam flushed a dusky rose which was enhanced by the already faint blush of the natural light and turned to look at Cam, seeing him watching her intently, his eyes transfixed. "Yes, they way you look at each other says as much as ten scrolls of parchment." The old man chuckled gruffly and ran a rough hand through the white hair over his tanned brow.

"Yes, Ildona, we are engaged to be wed." Sam replied anyway. "I suppose the both of you had some idea of our feelings on our previous visit?" Both the Urdijine nodded happily and Sam rolled her eyes at Cam's chuckle. "You are not the first to have noticed as much." She smiled faintly in amusement. "It is quite possible everyone knew before we did."

"Speak for yourself, darlin', I've known for a long time how I felt about you." Cam smiled ruefully and Jinaiya covered her mouth as she laughed. Sam reached back and flicked his forehead playfully.

"Okay, it is quite possible everyone knew before _I_ did." she reiterated and Ildona bobbed his head in understanding. "Truth be told, I knew I had feelings for him, I just couldn't believe they would be as deep as they actually were."

"Ah, sometimes the deepest loves are the hardest to understand, dear." Jinaiya piped up from behind her. "They are so much a part of you it is hard to separate the cause from the effect." Sam nodded at that.

"I'll point out that our last visit probably helped a great deal." Cam stated. "Especially the time we spent at the Caverns of Aleminu." Sam turned to walk backwards for a few steps as she looked into his eyes. She held out her hand and showed him the bracelet on her wrist. He grinned. She spun back around with a flick of her ponytail, her hair once more the sandy blonde shade it had been eighteen months previously.

"Well, then your visit to the Caverns this evening, before the conclusion of our renewed accords will be doubly special." Jinaiya smiled happily at them both.

"We're greatly looking forward to it, Jinaiya." Sam grinned as they walked under the shade of the bazaar's canopy and the scents of the market greeted them. They spent the next couple of hours hashing out a few more details, resolving oversights in the original accord which had become clear over the two Urdijina years it had been in effect. They did all this while wandering through the market, greeting and conversing with merchants and villagers, taking advice from all who wished to offer it as was the Urdijine way. Several members of the refugee communities offered their own suggestions as they stopped to converse with them, these were well considered by the Council members also. A while later they found themselves inside the Council Tower, standing around the open fire and enjoying the roasted sweet meats which were traditionally served before the commencement of Council deliberations, which were very swiftly concluded with so much of the hard work having been done outside. They agreed upon changes, and agreed more on things which would remain the same. Finally Urisca stood and was joined by them all and the Council members bowed deeply to Sam and Cameron in the same motion of great respect as when they'd agreed the original treaty. Jinaiya led them out to the same line of four youthful Aleri who escorted them to the Caverns. Sam held on to Cameron's hand as they walked through the fields and small copses of trees on the way towards the ridgeline which held the caves. They talked long of not much at all, something they'd always been able to do since their Academy days, no, since the barbecue in McLean. Even back then she'd known Cam was the sort of person she could easily spend countless hours with.

The Aleri parted ways with them at the cave entrance with a bow, which they returned. Cam held her hand until they'd walked inside then lifted it to his lips and kissed her fingers gently before releasing it.

"See you on the flipside." He waved lightly as he disappeared from her view, and she sauntered in to where she would change and wash as per the ritual. Several minutes later she was wrapped in the familiar white robes, passing a hand over the sheer fabric which hugged her figure. She walked into the main chamber and walked past the line of torches to immerse herself in the warm, turbid water of the pool. She felt Cam behind her even before she saw his shadow cast by the torchlight. She leant her head back as his fingers closed on her shoulders and rubbed them for a moment. Then he leaned down over her and captured her lips with his. He climbed over the lip of rock and sat next to her, but she had other ideas, moving to sit between his legs and leaning back against his chest, resting her head against his cheek. He took a hold of her hands in his, interlacing their fingers, and wrapped her up in a double embrace. She closed her eyes, letting the floral scent of the milky water suffuse throughout her body, his warmth as overpowering to her, in its own way, as the water itself. They reclined together in silence for many minutes, simply basking in the otherworldliness of the hot spring. She sighed, deeply contented. He lifted a hand from around her and brushed the tip of a finger along her nose and across her cheek. She purred happily at his caress, his finger leaving a trail of tingling nerves in its wake as it ran along her jaw and down her neck. "I've got you, Sam." he whispered gently and she smiled, nodding slightly against his cheek.

"Mmm, yes you do." she replied. Her feeling of bliss was short lived however, a flash of bright light against her closed eyelids startled her into screwing her eyes shut tighter while Cam shifted behind her with a grunt of discomfort. "What was that, Cam?" she called while blinking her eyes open then closing them tight again as her mind was assaulted with a quick succession of visions, of a wall of Alteran text floating in front of her, flashing and disappearing. She gasped and her eyes flew open as she leaned forward in the water and Cam grabbed on to her shoulder. "Cam?"

"Yeah, Sam, I remembered it too. Look!" He pointed ahead of them and there it was. The hologram of Alteran glyphs, hovering over the water. She could read it now, understand it. And it shocked the Hell out of her when she read it all. "Joseph and Mary." Cam said breathlessly, he obviously agreed. Sam blinked in disbelief at the sight before her. She leant forward in the milky water with one arm planted between her legs as she made a move to get up on one knee. Cam's hand on her shoulder held her still for the moment as he shifted behind her.

"~Travellers from the Infinite, step forward and take a hold of the key. Inheritors of Eternity, step forward to safeguard the future. Children of Atlantus, step forward and find the home from home. Guardians of Selenis, step forward and find the name of the builder.~" she recited. They both stood up slowly. Not taking their eyes off the text. She looked at Cam in warning and he held up his hands.

"I learn from my mistakes, no more touching floating glyphs until I know what to touch." he said with a smile. She returned it. "How come the Deep Core didn't restore these memories after all this time?" he asked irritably. Sam chewed her bottom lip in thought.

"Maybe because they were actively stripped from us last time. Which was faithfully recorded by the Core." she replied finally. He quirked his head in acknowledgement that it was a good theory. She rounded on him with a fierce look. "And aren't you glad it did! Since otherwise I would have kicked your ass for blatantly being able to read Ancient back then!" She poked him in the ribs.

"Hey! I could read the glyphs, recognised a few words, but since I knew I wasn't supposed to be able to I guess I blanked it out." he explained remorsefully. He motioned back to the glyphs, attempting to change the subject. "It's obviously some sort of puzzle." She nodded with a slight smile of amusement.

"Yes, I think we need to find two keywords to unlock whatever this is protecting." She read the words in Ancient once more, "Liherri Atlantas." She plucked at her lip in thought.

"~Home from home,~ other than Atlantis, wouldn't that be Earth?" Cam asked from beside her and she smiled. Smarter than he looked.

"Not 'Earth', but 'Terra'. It's Alteran after all. Your gene expression is the strongest, tap in the word using the glyphs in 'Liherri Atlantas'." She watched him as he stepped forward and gingerly moved a hand to touch the hologram, she stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Cam, remember, Alteran tech has a large mental component, which responds to confidence among other things. Be yourself. Be sure." He looked at her for a long moment and set his features before nodding and straightening purposefully. He tapped on the Alteran glyphs to spell 'Terra' which flashed, but stayed lit, turning the entire sentence a deep blue before solidifying again. He sighed in relief and she rubbed his back, turning to the next part. "Praesimus Selenitas" She took his hand in hers momentarily. "That's definitely you, love." He smiled sheepishly. "The builder is obvious though. 'Ilemus'" He was already tapping out the glyphs for the letters before she'd finished. They flashed and turned blue in turn, a series of distorted twangs reverberated in the cavern as squares of crystal lit up and shone diffusely through the cloudy water of the pool, marking a path into the darkness beyond the torchlight.

"Okay, that was pretty cool." he breathed as he looked along the glowing path in the milky water.


	9. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, Atlantis or Universe, I am only playing in the world.

**Voices from a Lost Time – Epilogue**

Giza, Egypt, November 1929

Cam unzipped the bomber jacket as he knelt on the wooden floorboards inside the ring of the Stargate resting on trestles, which groaned and warped under its weight. He unzipped the top of his flightsuit and pulled it aside under the belt at his waist. He lifted his t-shirt out and gingerly pulled it up his abdomen, exposing the gash caused by Anubis. Just a jagged cut, nothing too bad. He shouldn't need stitches. He heard a creak and the slowed steps of Catherine Langford as she wobbled under the weight of a large jug of water and the thin towel she'd wrapped around her neck.

"Here you go, Mister." She set the water just beyond the edge of the Stargate and ducked her head to scrabble underneath it before dragging the jug along to where Cam was kneeling down. She turned and spotted his bare stomach and sucked in a shocked breath. "Does that hurt?" she asked in a worried breath.

"No, not really, I've had worse." He reached up for the towel and she unwrapped it from around her neck and handed it to him, revealing the necklace with its ring, which she had put on. He averted his gaze quickly. He pulled on the handle of the jug to bring it closer and tilted it to spill water on the towel, then proceeded to wipe the wound clean with a sharp intake of breath.

"Stop right there!" cried a man who burst into the warehouse, startling Catherine who gave a little yelp where she was kneeling beside Cam, watching him carefully. "Who are you? What are you doing to my little girl?" The man was brandishing a pistol, it looked like it was a US Army issue Smith & Wesson M1917 revolver. His hand was shaking. "Catherine, come over here."

"Father, he's not going to hurt me, and he's hurt himself." Catherine put a hand on Cam's shoulder, but he didn't take his eyes off Professor Langford and his pistol.

"It's alright, Catherine, go to your father." he said softly and she turned to look at him. She shook her head quickly, causing her short, straight hair to whip against her cheeks.

"No!" She turned to her father. "Father, he came flying from out of the ring! I saw it!" she pointed at the Stargate. Langford stepped forward slowly while Cam remained motionless, holding the towel to his abdomen.

"Catherine, do as I tell you, come to me." He held out his hand, ignoring her words.

"Go on, Catherine, I'll be alright, your father won't hurt me." Cam whispered, still following the revolver with his eyes. Catherine bit her lower lip, but stood up and backed away towards the edge of the ring. When she was out of arms reach Cam stood up as well, then raised one hand while keeping the other pressed against his side.

"Who are you?" Langford seemed satisfied with Catherine being far enough away even if she wasn't at his side. "Where did you come from? What are you doing here?"

"My name isn't important, Professor Langford, and like Catherine said, I came through the ring. I'm here on a mission of great importance." Cam replied in a voice far calmer than Langford's. He could still see the end of the barrel shaking. Lagford's brows knit together as he scoffed.

"You expect me to believe such lunacy? Such utter tripe?" he asked incredulously.

"It's true, Daddy, I saw it with my own eyes!" cried Catherine as she took a step forward.

"Stay back, Catherine." Cam said warningly at the same moment Langford cried to his daughter.

"Catherine, don't move!" he waved the pistol in Cam's direction as if he was trying to threaten him. Cam had still to move a single muscle. He eyed the Professor warily. Catherine gave a little yelp and stepped back again, pressing her back against the inside of the 'gate.

"The ring is a form of transportation. Two rings connect to each other forming a portal between them." Cam began, not wanting to get technical as he watched Langford continue to move closer to the outside edge of the Stargate.

"Rubbish! It's a ceremonial monument!" Langford had reached the edge of the ring, stupidly, at the point closest to the man he was aiming at, which is where Cam wanted him. He moved, ducking and rolling forward as Langford fired where he no longer was. He came up and grabbed the man's wrist and twisted, catching the revolver as it fell from nerveless fingers with the hand which had just a few moments before been holding a blood-stained towel. Catherine had screamed when the shot was fired, she now clutched at her ears, looking at the two men fearfully as she crouched down on the balls of her feet. Cam's wound was probably bleeding again, he didn't care. He pulled on the hand he was still holding, forcing Langford painfully against the outer edge of the ring. He lifted the revolver and flicked the release, let the cylinder swing out and caused the bullets to tumble from it with a shake of his wrist. He then tossed the pistol over his shoulder so that it bounced on the wooden slats and fell into the hole created by the reversed vortex funnel. He pulled down on the archaeologist's hand so his arm was pinned against the ring and his face was mere inches from the inner track of symbols. Cam tapped his fingers on it, right in front of Langford's wide eyes.

"When have the Egyptians ever been able to work metal like this? Metal you can't identify." Without waiting for a response he lifted Langford's arm and led him to one of the chevrons, again pinning him against the ring and this time tapping on top of a crystal. "When have they ever worked crystal like this? Crystal with a structure that makes it unworkable with any tools you know of, let alone any tools available to the Egyptians." He pulled on the arm again, this time letting go so an unbalanced Langford slipped and fell backwards, allowing Cam to spin under the Stargate and grab at Langford's arm again as he lay on the floor, lifting him up and pinning the arm behind his back as he pushed him against the ring again, just to the right of the third chevron clockwise after the top one. Cam made sure Langford could see, then slammed the heel of his palm on the outside of the ring, twisting and sliding his hand away so a metal panel recessed itself and slid along the inside of the ring's housing, revealing two rows of irregular, multi-coloured control crystals. "Ever seen _anything_ like that?" he asked the stupefied archaeologist before he slammed his palm to the left of the panel and watched it slide shut, and the seam disappear before his eyes, Langford would never see those crystals again. Catherine came running over along the inside of the ring, tears running down her face and Cam released Langford, letting him slump down onto his knees and then his haunches as the little girl ducked under the Stargate and threw her arms around her father. "This is something beyond your understanding, Professor Langford, beyond your imagining. Beyond your capability to fathom. You will never solve all its riddles to your satisfaction," he paused and looked at Catherine, "but your daughter will. With help." Langford stared at him dumbfounded before reaching up to stroke his daughter's hair as she cried against his shoulder.

"How do you know all this? Who are you?" he asked as he stared at Cam with a look of fear and amazement rolled into one. Cam paused and looked away for a moment, he couldn't believe what he was about to say, Sam would cover her eyes with her hands in despair. He clenched his jaw, driving the image from his mind, then turned back to stare at the man.

"I'm from the future, Professor Langford." He reached into his pocket and produced Sam's mobile phone, flipping it open and showing him the screen with its wallpaper of Sam kissing his cheek as he grinned into the camera. Langford stared at it in open disbelief. He flipped the phone closed and stuffed it back in his pocket. "My name is Daniel Carter, and I need your help to save the world."

* * *

Herian's moon, P6C-211, October 2008

Cam clutched at Sam lest she somehow disappear out of his arms. Her fingers wrapped around the back of his head, into his shaggy hair and pressed his face against her tac vest. She came to get him. It took her months, but she came. No... time dilation field... to her it's probably been less than a day. He didn't care anyway. She came. He knew she would.

"I've got you, Cam, I've got you." she breathed into the top of his head. He nodded, grinning wildly as the tears welled up in his eyes. He suddenly groaned in pain and held his breath. "Cam?" She pushed him away and he felt her hands moving over him, lifting up what was left of his shirt and gasping at the sight. "Holy Hannah... Cam..." He knew his torso would be covered in bruises, from the blunt padded arrows the hunters used in their bows, from the clubs and hafts of other weapons with which they'd struck him, finally from the fists and boots with with they'd punched and kicked him. They didn't want him dead though. They lived for the hunt, not the kill. They would hunt their prey until they were no longer worth the sport.

"I'm alright, Sam, this is just from today. They heal me with a hand device in the morning then let me rest for a day or two." He rolled over onto his back and lay still, breathing slowly.

"Where is it?" she asked frantically and Cam shook his head to clear it before looking towards where Herian usually sat. He moved his arm towards it and Sam got up and ran off. He saw several things being thrown around and she was soon back at his side, with the hand device around her fingers, holding it over him. She was grimacing and shaking it, growling in frustration. "Work, damn it! Work!" He reached up and touched a hand to her cheek, stroking it gently. She stopped and looked at him as he smiled softly.

"Calm down, Sam." he breathed and the anger in her gaze melted away as she looked at him with watery eyes and nodded. She closed them in concentration and took a deep breath. After several moments he saw the orange light shining from the device and felt the pain in his chest easing little by little. He sighed. After a while he heard her throw the hand device aside and lift him up by the shirt and wrap her arms around his shoulders. "Thanks, darlin'." he chuckled.

"How long, Cam?" she breathed the question as if unsure she really wanted to know. He leaned his head against the side of hers.

"Just a few months is all, no biggie." He honestly wasn't entirely sure, it's not as if he could use the day/night cycle to count, damn thing moved through the sky like molasses, and the one night he'd seen had lasted a _very_ long time. Sam whimpered and he sighed. "Seriously, Sam. I knew you'd come as soon as you could, I just had to wait it out." She punched the back of his head softly. He chuckled when her fingers then traced gently over where she'd hit him.

"You know..." She pulled back and pushed the hair away from his eyes, "considering all the relativistic effects we've been under over the years, you're probably physically older than I am now." She smirked at him ruefully and he chuckled.

"I see how you are, you're the type to kick a man when he's down." he grumbled and she slapped his arm and laughed when he did.

"Cam, everyone is waiting for me to disable the device so they can assault the Ha'tak. I kind of got sidetracked saving your ass." She stood up and slowly helped him get to his feet.

"Well, won't they be pissed, all dressed up and no-one to dance with." He kicked Herian's head away and leaned down to pick up the Goa'uld's sword and the sheathe from his belt, blood simply slid off the shimmering double-edged blade and he re-sheathed it. "High frequency vibrating blade." he muttered in disgust. "Thanks for saving my ass, by the way." He smiled at her and began hobbling out of the room, she quickly came to take his arm over her shoulder. "Let's go let everyone in."

"Are you okay? You look like a mess." Sam said softly and Cam glared at her.

"Sheesh, don't shave for a while and everyone's a critic." he joked and she couldn't help chuckling. They made their way to the ring room and Cam indicated a sequence for her to key in to take them to the base of the pyramid. They walked through the colonnaded gallery and into the water-laden parade ground ruins which held the device. Sam let Cam stand on his own and moved towards the control pedestal, opening a sliding tray filled with control crystals at its base. Cam didn't give her a chance to decide which crystal to remove first, he unsheathed the sword and swung it through the console over and over, ripping into it and sending sparks flying as huge chunks of it slid away to tumble into the shallow water.

"Cam! What are you doing?" she cried, but dared not go near him as he swung the ultra sharp sword with abandon. "Stop, Cameron!" With each swing and stroke he cried out in anger and pain until with one last cry of rage and frustration he lifted the weapon above his head in both hands and swung it down with all his might through the exposed heart of the pedestal only for the sword to strike something it could not cut, something which actually made the blade shatter into pieces, its vibrations sending the shards of metal flying through the rest of the machine away from them. Cam held the hilt of the sword up to look at the broken blade and threw it away to stare into the machine in puzzlement. He began pushing loose parts of the control pedestal away from whatever had broken the sword and Sam came to stand by him in surprise before giving him a hand. Nestled in the machinery was a large ingot of dark bronze metal, shaped into a shallow arc. It was embossed with Ancient glyphs, with a bevelled circular recess cut in the center and intricately shaped reliefs embedded inside. Cam touched it and nothing happened so he picked it up and pulled it out. As he did so, the SG teams streamed into the main chamber to find him and Sam turning the ingot over and over in bemusement.

"Colonel Mitchell, Colonel Carter, what's the situation?" asked Colonel Dixon of SG-2 as he came to stand by them. A medic immediately rushed to Cam's side and began fussing with his wounds much to his irritation. Colonel Reynolds joined them as well, as did the rest of SG-1.

"Sorry, Colonels, I kind of rescued Cam myself. It was an accident, I swear!" cried Sam and Vala laughed. Daniel looked at the pedestal in horror, while Jonas, Kianna and Teal'c came to stand by Sam and Cameron, Sam nodded to them reassuringly when they looked at her questioningly.

"We tried contacting you on the radio, but we received no reply to the double tap. Figured you were surrounded." grumbled Dixon with a mock-glare.

"Sorry, Dix," Cam smirked, "she probably couldn't hear it over me trashing the hotel room." He nodded towards the destruction in front of him.

"I can see that." Colonel Dixon clapped Cam on the shoulder and went to organise the SG teams.

"What did you do?" Daniel asked incredulously once he could tell Cam was mostly okay after the medic's impatient ministrations. He indicated the destroyed pedestal and Cam shrugged. For her part, Vala used her fingers to point around her mouth alluding to his beard and gave a little shake of her head. He grinned at her.

"I needed to vent. This is what you want." He handed the ingot to Daniel. "The Lock of the Eternal Moment." Daniel looked at him in confusion.

"Lock?" He glanced at the glyphs and nodded as he lifted his eyebrows. "Oh, yes, Lock." He pointed at a line of text. "Serrapta Momenta Eteri. Serrapta not Saepta."

* * *

Selenis, Luna, August 2010

Sam stood in Command with Teal'c going over various security enhancements they were thinking of installing at the base. Unfortunately it would need a self destruct system of some kind, all Air Force facilities of such a sensitive nature required one. He was nodding at the display as she indicated the secondary power junctions when Cameron came running up the stairs, all excitement, calling for the Jaffa.

"T-man, I've got it! Check it out!" He held up a football for the Jaffa to gaze at quizzically. Teal'c lifted an eyebrow at Cam.

"It is an American football, Colonel Mitchell." intoned the alien. "We have used one many times in the past as I recall." Cam frowned at him, but not half as much as Sam scowled at Cam.

"Cameron, we're kind of busy..." she began, but Cam smiled and kissed her lightly before turning back to Teal'c.

"I need to borrow the T. This is important, honey. You have no idea how much." He held the football higher. "I've been working on this with Dr. Lazlo using a personal forcefield generator I brought back from Atlantis last month. We modified it with Selenis' help."

"~Selenis? What is this about?~" Sam asked, trying to get a straight answer from someone.

"~A forcefield generator has been integrated into the internal structure of the ball, suspended in a high tensile strength fibrous mesh within the air sac.~" began the AI's explanation. "~The field generator maintains a pocket of air all around the ball, no more than five molecules thick, maintaining one atmosphere of pressure at all times while allowing contact with the ball.~" Sam was still at a loss. She stared at Cam dumbfounded.

"Can you not see what this means, T-man?" Cam asked desperately. At the Jaffa's continued look of confusion he pointed beyond the wall of the 'gate room. Teal'c looked where indicated and walked towards the wall to gaze out on the hangar deck. Sam followed both men to stare down at the vast expanse of grey decking down below. They were silent for several moments until Teal'c spoke.

"Samantha Carter, you must excuse me for an hour, perhaps two. Colonel Mitchell and I have important business we must attend to." Teal'c glanced at Cam and nodded once. "Lead the way, Colonel Mitchell."

"That's what I'm talking about!" cried Cam and spun about to hug Sam and kiss her lightly. "Back soon, sweetness." He bounded off with the Jaffa in tow, leaving Sam speechless. Thirty minutes later, Vala found her standing between the stairs behind the Stargate, staring out into the hangar bay, shaking her head.

"Samantha, where have Muscles and Cameron gone off to? Daniel and I are waiting to start our basketball game." She came to stand by Sam and followed her gaze. "Oh. Oh my."

"They had some important business to take care of." Sam answered Vala's question with equal parts irritation, amazement and indulgence in her voice. She shook her head and held a hand to her temple, but she couldn't help the smile which creased her lips at the same time, as she watched Cameron, standing in the standard Lunar gravity down in the hangar deck, surrounded in a large air retaining forcefield projected by Selenis. He pulled his arm back and launched another thousand yard pass to Teal'c standing in his own forcefield over by the completed Alteran ship. Selenis kept a spotlight trained on the tight spiral of the football, marked with brief flashes of blue as it passed from within Cam's forcefield into the vacuum of the hangar proper, then once more as it entered the Jaffa's forcefield at its destination, all the while encased in its own pocket of air at Earth standard atmospheric pressure.

"I think I better tell Daniel."

* * *

USS Odyssey, above P3X-474, May 2007 + 3,315 days relative

She pulled out of the kiss to see the look in his eyes and it immediately made her kiss him again. She ran her hands through the hair at the back of his head and lost herself against his mouth. After several ardent minutes which had her breathlessly pulling away to caress his cheek as his eyes sparkled that intense shade of blue she loved so much, she started climbing out of the second seat and wordlessly motioned him into it. He grinned and complied, she watched him for a moment, biting her lower lip before turning to the first seat and climbing in.

"Your turn is it?" he asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"You better believe it." she said over her shoulder as she flicked the switch which closed the canopy and raised the F302 into the center of the simulator. "Can you start it up in the planetary atmosphere? Or do we have to take off from Odyssey?"

"I can do that, no problem." Cam replied and took out the remote, inputting several commands which flashed the holographic display around them from the yellow gridlines on black to displaying a blue sky. Then the simulation began and she was in control. She grinned as she angled the 302 over and down towards the ground. Cam liked negative gee climbs, well Sam liked positive gee dives. Flying inverted with the ground above them and pulling back on the stick had them hurtling towards the ground and Cam laughed from behind her.

"That's what I'm talkin' about!" He whooped and slapped the console in front of him as their altitude decreased at a starling rate until she brought them out of the dive at Mach 2.5 and level flight at thirty feet off the ground over a pampas like grassland.

"I learned this from a crazy man!" she cried over her shoulder and inverted the 302 once more, bringing it down to within the height of a tall man above the ground, Cam laughed maniacally as he could hear the tall grass being cut by the tail fins of the fighter behind his head. The grass flattened against the ground in their wake, but before it did so she thought it looked like a swaying, rippling pale yellow sea in front of her. Upside down of course.

"This crazy man sounds like my kinda guy!" Cam joked from behind her. "Let me guess. You have a crush on him, right?" She fired her manoeuvring thrusters and lifted them up over the pampas as she turned her head to look him in the eye with her own intense gaze.

"I love him, madly." she breathed. "He makes me soar through the sky." She pulled hard left on the yoke and rolled the 302, then kicked the nose up with her thrusters with perfect timing, spinning the fighter like a top until its momentum caught up and she shot up into the sky. When she hit Mach 3 she kicked the ramjets in and powered on into orbit. As she climbed through the atmosphere the sound of the engines died to only what could be heard through the airframe as they reached hard vacuum. She kicked in the sublights and made for Odyssey. She pursed her lips and made a crackling sound with her mouth before speaking in a monotone. "Tower, this is Ghost Rider, requesting a fly-by." Cam laughed and made his own crackling sound before responding in an impassive voice.

"That's a negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full." He was chuckling as he finished and saw her fly right past the forward windows on the bridge, at which point he laughed out loud. He was barely able to contain the laughter a minute later as he put on a mock-furious voice. "When are you going to stop those jockeys doing a fly-by on my tower at over 400 knots. I want somebody's butt, I want it now, I've had it!" Sam giggled.

"You want somebody's butt, do you?" she asked coyly looking over her shoulder. He raised an eyebrow.

"Is your ego writing checks your body _can_ cash, Colonel?" he asked.

"Switch this thing off." she ordered, already sliding open the canopy.

* * *

Urdijina, M3R-921, September 2010

"Well, let's go." He held out his hand and she took it, following alongside him as the path underfoot quickly became the only source of light as it curved around a protective curtain of rock, until then hidden in the darkness. Starkly illuminated in the cold light, his tense features made her halt their progress momentarily and had him gazing at her in confusion.

"This is _meant_ for us, Cam. We're expected." She stood her ground until he chuckled and nodded, lifting his other hand to caress her cheek momentarily, his features settled into his look of determination before he proceeded into the darkness once more. After several more turns in the depths of the cavern the path ended at an obliquely lit doorway which opened at their approach, leading them into a small sanctum containing only a large silvery column which shone from within with refracted light. Cam let go of Sam's hand and they circled the column to look around the area. There were very few features, just stones rising from the bedrock to various heights and smooth rock walls slick with moisture. And the column. She caught his eye and nodded slightly and he stepped forward and looked up and down the column before placing his palm on it causing a pulse to flow out from his hand through the surface of the crystal, which began wavering and shimmering. Cam stepped back to stand by Sam, while the column shrank and twisted at the top and bottom, evaporating with soft hisses and drips like melting candle wax. Sam gasped when she saw what was revealed, a man staggered forward into a quick-thinking Cam's arms and fell to his knees, coughing and clutching at his chest.

"Whoa there, buddy, take it easy." Cam muttered before remembering himself. "~Relax, sleeper. You are amongst friends.~" The man looked up to stare quizzically at Cameron and Sam covered her mouth with her hand.

"Ilemus." she breathed and the man turned to look at her at the sound of his name. He looked older than the footage of him on the log tablets, his hair was white and his face was lined with wrinkles, but it was clearly him. He coughed and spasmed in pain, Cam helped him up and manoeuvred him over to a conveniently shaped rock which could well have been some sort of seat. After several moments the man's shuddering breaths eased a little and he looked between them both. He clutched at Cam's robes with strong fingers.

"~Have you met the Children of Thyilea in Exile? The Indesta walk through Avalon still.~ he forced out with a shaky breath and Sam regarded Cam with a troubled gaze. One which he returned in kind. She crossed her arms over her chest as her brows furrowed in thought.

"~You're saying there are Indesta in Avalon right now?~" Cam asked pointedly of the man he was helping to support. Ilemus nodded emphatically. Cam looked at Sam with a frown which she returned. To imagine they would meet the builder of Selenis and his first words were a warning about Indesta in the Milky Way.

"~That is why you have come, is it not? You have met the Indesta who remained in Avalon, yes?~" The aged Alteran glanced between them both severely. Sam frowned and glanced at Cam.

"~Actually we just came to purify in the hot springs before concluding an accord with the Urdijine.~" Cam murmured to Ilemus' great alarm. "~We didn't know you were here.~" The man faltered as he attempted to stand and Cam came to take him by the elbow in support and eased him back down into the seat. "~How can there still be any Indesta in Avalon after all this time?~"

"~Who are you? Where do you come from? How long has it been?~" His shrewd eyes bore into them. He asked his questions decisively.

"~I am Samantha Carter, this is Cameron Mitchell. We are from Terra.~" Ilemus looked up in surprise at her words. "~It has been several million years since you left Selenis, Ilemus.~" He shook his head frowning then clutched at his temple in pain until Sam laid her hand on his shoulder.

"~I know that much. How long since I left Atlantus?~" he demanded as Sam pulled back again and Cam stood up.

"~We don't know.~" admitted Cam gently, Sam thought he might be unsure what effect any answer would have on the man. Ilemus did not seem to be adjusting well to his return from stasis. She turned to the Alteran again.

"~It has been over ten thousand years since the Lanteans left Atlantus to return to Avalon after their defeat in the war with the Wraith. They fought for over a century.~" she offered as much of the history of the end of the Lantean occupation of Atlantis as she could. Ilemus didn't react well. His jaw slackened in shock and his eyes glazed over. Once more he clutched at his chest and heaved great sucking breaths into his lungs. "~Ilemus, please rest, you've just been taken from deep stasis. You must recover your strength.~" He shook his head sadly.

"~There is no time. You are right when you called it deep stasis. We are not meant to be held frozen in time so strongly for so long. It causes severe damage to our minds and bodies.~" Cam looked at him in confusion.

"~Saronus was in stasis for millions of years, too, until we woke him up not long ago...~" He trailed off at Ilemus' look of shock. "~Saronus spliced a stasis chamber out of Selenis' control and sealed himself in. We discovered him not long after first arriving on Selenis several weeks ago.~"

"~Saronus was on Selenis?~" Ilemus' eyes grew wide in shock. "~We stranded him?~" He looked highly distressed until Cam shook his head sadly.

"~No, he was the Indesta saboteur,~" Cam's words had the Alteran blinking in surprise, "~but like I said, we woke him up not long ago and he was fine.~"

"~Was he really, Cam? He had twinges and muscle spasms.~" Sam pointed out and Cam gazed her way for a moment before looking down. "~You're suffering because we've returned you to realtime. Is there anything we can do?~" she asked Ilemus apologetically.

"~No, child. This was expected, I prepared for it.~" He unclasped a band of dark glossy metal from his wrist and held it out to Sam. She pointed at Cameron and smiled wryly.

"~His gene expression is better than mine even with the serum.~" She shrugged slightly. Ilemus looked between the two for a moment in great thought.

"~You are partners? In every way?~" Ilemus waited until they'd glanced at each other then nodded to him in unison. The Alteran shook his head slightly and closed the band once more. Holding it between his hands with his fingers grasping the outside of the black metal, he twisted each side in opposite directions, the band unlocked in a serrated pattern all along the circumference. Pulling each half apart they could see filaments of the black metal stretching and distending and finally tearing, only to be absorbed into the main body of each half. The trangular teeth on each then gradually became rounder and shallower until he held two identical bands, slimmer than the original, he then offered one each to Cameron and Sam. They took them, Cam held his, examining it while Sam put hers on hesitantly when Ilemus motioned for her to do so. She felt a jolt, and looked down at the band in amazement. Touching it with a finger she pulled her hand away which caused a strip of light to form in the air before her, which widened as she reached inside to pull out a flat disk of silver metal with recessed glyphs running along its edge, on both faces were irregularly shaped, angular notches and splines arranged radially from the center of the disc. The strip of light faded from sight as Sam's hand moved away from it. "~Ilemus. This is...~" She looked at Cam in dismay. "~This is a myth.~" Ilemus chuckled in understanding and nodded.

"~What is it, Sam?~" Cam came to stand beside her, looking at the disk in curiosity while looping his fingers through his band.

"~Daniel's going to kill me, Cam.~" she said in amusement and he looked at her in confusion. "~This is the Key to Infinite Treasure.~" He raised his eyebrow and Ilemus barked an incredulous laugh.

"~No, the Key to the Vault of Infinity, at least, my part of it.~" Ilemus corrected with a shake of his head. "~An oddly subtle though predictable mistake. You must find the other parts of the Key, and it's mate. It will lead you to our greatest secret. The secret we worked so hard to keep from the Indesta.~" They both looked at the Alteran in awe. And then in shock, as he doubled over in pain once more. Cam rushed to help support him. "~You must find the Lock!~" Ilemus gasped while clutching at his chest. "~The Lock to the Moment of Eternity. Inside... is the...sum of our- ~" His jaw clenched and his eyes screwed shut in pain and Sam rushed over as well to take one of the man's arms. Suddenly the room was filled with a blinding light. When she opened her eyes she saw Ilemus before her, tendrils of his energy brushing against her face and Cam's as he spoke into their minds. '~You must take up the burden now. Forgive me.~' He vanished as a shimmering wisp, flashing through them and into the ceiling. They stared up after him for several moments.

"Why does the Lock to the Moment of Eternity sound familiar?" Sam asked as she turned to Cam with a slightly unfocused gaze.

"'Cause I think it's in the vault at Area 51." Cam replied with the same tone of mild disbelief, still staring up at the ceiling.

* * *

To be continued in 'A Sword in Agate'


End file.
